Dare you to move
by jacques.genevieve
Summary: What was supposed to be an ordinary day turned out to be anything but ordinary. There’s a new student at Worcestershire who’ll change a lot of things. ArtieOC.
1. Chapter 1  Ordinary Day

**Disclaimer :** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note :** I've done my best to do less mistakes as I could, but I'm a French Canadian and I kinda learned by myself (mostly by reading Fan Fiction... thanks to all of you !) because English classes is not very useful, let me say it. Anyway, if you see any mistakes, feel free to tell it to me and I'll correct them with pleasure :)

**Update :** AllzStar is nice enough to correct my story. See the bottom of the page for more information about it:)

* * *

This was going to be an ordinary day, thought Artie. But "ordinary day" meant nothing good to him. An ordinary day in his life meant that he had to go to class and work alone for teamwork and that he had to ignore all the people laughing and playing pranks on him. Even the nerds were cooler than him and that, he thought, sucked pretty badly. He knew he deserved more than that. Yeah; someday he was going to be great and famous and people would regret all the things they had said and done to him. 

"Hey Artie!"

Arthur went out of his reverie.

"I assume we will see you tomorrow at the father and son contest day?" continued Lancelot boisterously, "Oh yeah, I forgot: even your father didn't want you! And let me say that I don't blame him!" he burst out laughing and winked to his popular friends.

Yeah, this was going to be a normal day…

He looked around him, only to see his classmates having fun, chatting while they were waiting for the teacher to come. Only he was talking to no one, in the back of the classroom. He felt pretty alone, but in some kind of way, was beginning to get used to it.

The teacher entered the class and everyone stopped talking, taking their stuff out of their bags and getting prepared for the lesson.

"Good morning, students!"

"Morning, Mr. Merlin." The few students that said this said it quietly and hesitantly as to not look like teacher's pets in front of their classmates. Arthur stayed quiet and was already backing into his reverie.

"Today's going to be different," said Merlin with a hint of a smile. The word different caught Arthur's attention. "We have a new arrival in the school," the teacher continued, "I'm sure everyone will be very nice to her and help her fit right in." Mr. Merlin was now getting the attention from all of the guys in the class. "April, you can come in now!"

---

She didn't like this kind of presentation stuff. In fact, she downright dreaded it. Having everyone looking at her, making sizing her up by the way she looked. She knew that the girls were only checking to see if she would become a kind of eventual rival or threat to their status and that the guys were already thinking of how they would look as a couple. The only good thing about standing in front of everyone was that she, in turn, could also look briefly around the class and size them up.

It didn't take her long at all to find the "cool" ones, like that tall guy with brown hair who seemed to have self-confidence to buy; and the girl with curly red hair who was ferociously chewing her bubble-gum. The two of them seemed to have their little fan-clubs; there were several guys surrounding the brown-haired guy and even more girls fighting to sit next to the redhead.

April began to feel a little apprehensive about them, but, well, everyone is great unless there is something that states clearly otherwise, right?

And, of course, there were the nerds in their own corner of the room…ah, the runny-nosed, pimply-faced, glasses-and-braces-wearing nerds. How many of them asked her out? It was so difficult to her to say "No, but we can still be friends". She knew how horrible it was to have this kind of answer but she didn't know what else to say to get her out of it.

She also noticed one guy at the very back of the class who was sitting all alone and who was not even looking at her, but staring at the paper on his desk. He looked very socially awkward and shy. But he seemed nice…at least he wasn't staring at her like she was a piece of meat like everyone else in the class. And he wasn't that bad looking, either…

"Ahem." Merlin cleared his throat.

"Oh! Sorry, sir," April said sheepishly, "I just kind of analyzed the people in the class to get a good idea on who everyone is. Guess I got kind of distracted."

"That's perfectly alright; I like your spirit!" replied the wizard happily. "Now, will you give us all the honor of knowing a little bit about you so we can analyze you, too?" He laughed at his own little joke but no one else did.

"Um, okay," said April hesitantly. She didn't like doing this sort of stuff. "I don't really know what to say. In fact, I never liked this kind of presentation stuff in front of everyone, because you can't know who I am after a few short sentences. If you want to know me, you'll have to talk to me…!" She laughed nervously and bit her lip when her peers' faces remained blank. "Well, I'm a person who smiles a lot; you could say I'm still very young at heart...uh…." She began to pull at her clothes. "I really don't know what else to say..." She stood there for a moment in silence while the class waited, gathering her thoughts. "Well, I could also tell you some of my hobbies, I guess…I like to draw…and…um…I'm kinda good at sports… and I think that's it." She took a deep breath and smiled weakly at Mr. Merlin. The teacher blinked, as if expecting more, but when he realized she was done he said, "

"Well, I suppose that will be enough for us!" He gestured towards the class. "Now, take a seat wherever you like and we'll begin the lesson."

She thanked him and walked down an isle, heading for the back where the shy guy was. She felt the gaze of the guys following her all along. One guy, the brown-haired popular one, made her feel really uneasy; it was like he was undressing her only with his eyes. She looked away, pretending she hadn't seen him and sat just beside the lone boy at the back of the room. He jerked when she sat down, as if coming out of a reverie. She turned to look at him and gave him one of her most dashing smiles. He blinked, processing what was happening. When he realized that April had just sat beside him and smiled dazzlingly at him, his face turned bright red and he looked back at his desk.

---

He couldn't believe it. This beautiful new girl had gone out of her way to sit next to a loser like him? It took him a while to figure it out. When he did, he felt like the biggest fool ever.

She had caramel-colored hair that curled down to her shoulders. He couldn't place the color of her eyes because he hadn't had time to see it. When she smiled at him, he sensed his face getting hot and he turned away immediately. He must have looked like an idiot. Anyway, she had beautiful eyes and such a smile! How could she look at him? He didn't understand it.

It was just a smile. Nothing more. When everyone will talk her, she'll know how much of reject I am. She will not smile at me then and she will laugh as the others do, he tried to convince himself.

Still, he couldn't help but turn his face to his right to look at her.

"Whoa!"

She giggled. "Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you," she said shyly, "Do you want to be my teammate for this work?" she asked.

"What? What work?" he asked, a little confused.

"You weren't listening, weren't you?" she said with humor, smiling. "Merlin gave us a little work to do…that's why you have a new sheet of paper on your desk. See?" She pointed the sheet.

"Oh." His face reddened even more. He really looked like a fool now. He usually listened in class and had very good grades.

"Why do you waste your time talking with him?" Interfered Lancelot loudly from across the room, "No one loves him."

Her eyes widened. She sat there silently for a couple of seconds. "Oh…really? Thank you for telling me! I would never spend time with a reject. What was I thinking, anyway? Thank you Mister…?"

"Sir Lancelot, at your service," he replied triumphantly. "You could do this exercise with me. You'll have so much more fun."

Artie was already beginning his work alone. He knew that would happen, but not that fast. He didn't even have a chance to really talk to her…She'd even succeeded in hurting him already.

"Sure, I'll be honored to go with you," she answered confidently.

Lancelot smirked in Artie's general direction. "See? She's here only five minutes and she already sees how much of a loser you are!" He turned to April "So…. We go to my desk, unless you want to be beside a loser?"

"Yeah, you're right, I don't wanna be beside a loser…"

Ok, ok, I get it… I'M A LOSER! Now just stop it! Artie thought, pressing harder onto the page with his pencil so that he nearly tore it.

"…that's why I'm not going to work with you!"

That last part of her sentence surprised Artie and Lancelot...and pretty much everyone else in the class.

"You really think I meant I'll have said?" she asked, surprised.

"…Yeah?" Lancelot was very puzzled now.

"What were you thinking, really? You show up like you're the king of the world, cut the conversation I had with him AND you tell me I shouldn't be with him because he's a loser! That's a sick joke!"

Lancelot was now very silent, a look of shock on his face.

"How dare you tell me with who I should spend my time with?" April continued loudly, "You don't even know me…and I think; no, I'm pretty sure that I don't want to know you either. You've had your chance to prove me wrong about the first impression I had of you, and you failed. You suck…a lot."

She spat out the last word with such a look of disdain on her face that Lancelot would have backed up if he hadn't been seated.

Artie looked at her, amazed. Lancelot was gaping. No one had ever dared to talk to him that way and this girl would suffer for the outburst.

---

"Come on, let's do this work together," said April sweetly once the message had sunk in, turning to Artie with a smile. "Oh but wait… I've got an idea. I'll be right back." She passed in front of Lancelot, glaring fiercely at him (though he was still dumbfounded) and went in the front of the class to see Merlin.

"Sir?"

"Yes my dear?" he answered.

"The weather is nice outside. At my other school, when it was warm like that, our teachers let us do our work outside if we wanted to. They warned us that if we weren't doing great, we'd have to come inside, so we did the exercises as demanded and we had the chance to be under the sun. It would be great if you could do that too, sir." She smiled to show she was finished.

"That's is a great idea! Listen up, everyone!" he said loudly, addressing the class, "April here had a great idea and I'm sure you're gonna love it." Everyone felt pretty unsure of that. Some people were already glaring at her.

"You can do your teamwork outside if you want too, on one condition: do it correctly, or it'll be the last time you'll have this privilege. Come back here at the end of the class to give me your exercise. Now go!"

Everyone shouted of joy. She could hear some "Thanks April!" "That's great!" or "We already love you!" And she was sure she heard a "You're our Queen!"

That comment must come from the nerds, she joked to herself.

Lancelot was the only one who wasn't having fun. He has been turned down by April and now his girlfriend didn't want to talk to him. He eventually left with the rest of the class though.

April went back to Artie. He could tell by her smile that she was very proud of herself.

"So, what's your name, The-one-I-shouldn't-be-with?" she asked, laughing.

"Arthur…But you can call me Artie."

"Nice to meet you Artie! Now what would you think if we do our work very fast so we could spend some time together?"

"S-Sounds great."

---

This must be a dream. She talks to me and she even seems to enjoy it. Plus, she defended me. She must be sent straight from heaven!

"Finished! Whoa! We're great! We have still 20 minutes left and I'm pretty sure all our answers are right!" exclaimed April when they had finished the last question on the worksheet. "So, now we can talk about anything! If you want, that is."

While she was speaking he looked around him, only to see people whispering and pointing at them. He knew the whole situation was already bringing a lot of rumors. But, to be honest, he was as surprised as everyone else that she had chosen him to hand out with. Plus, she turned down Lancelot…in his defense!

Speak of the devil; right then Lancelot passed in front of them, following Guinevere and seeming quite desperate.

"How could you?" Guinevere shouted at him, "You wanted to work with her? You always work with me! I'm tired of you flirting with other girls! You're such a jerk!" She began to storm off, fuming.

"Guinevere…baby…you know I love you – and you'll always be the only one. I just wanted to make her…comfortable so she would adapt well in her new school…" babbled Lancelot in vain.

"Yeah, right. I'm not a fool you know! I never want to see your face ever again!"

Arthur and April looked at the scene, stunned. When the couple was far enough, they burst out laughing.

"Oh, my God, that was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my entire life!" cried Arthur between giggles.

"Yeah! I cannot even believe how much of a…a…."

"Jerk he is?"

"Yeah." She wiped at her watering eyes.

He smiled.

Suddenly her smile faded and was replaced my a look of sheepishness. "You know…you should smile more. You look really…uh…handsome when you smile." Her voice squeaked on the word handsome.

"R-Really? Well…um…th-thanks. I guess…I mean…. No! I'm sure…Thanks, that's really nice of you." He smiled again to make her happy. Was she flirting with him? He sensed his face turning pink again. He had to do something, anything, but look at her. Oh, the grass! That was a great thing to look at.

They spent a few moments in silence. Then Artie lay down on the grass, and so did April. They both looked at the clouds.

"The breeze is nice." she said quietly.

"Yeah, it was a great idea that you had: to work outside." He turned his face to look at her, an eye closed against the glare of the sun. "By the way, what's your last name? You never told us in front of the class."

"Grey. My name's April Grey."

"Mine's Pendragon."

"Nice. Arthur Pendragon. It sounds like a king name."

He laughed. "Yeah…in my dreams!" He looked at the clock tower. "It's time to bring back our work." He stood up and offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. 

"Thanks…" said April slowly, gathering her worksheets. "You know, I just don't get why people don't like you. You're a nice guy. Don't ever think otherwise, okay?"

He nodded and felt his cheeks getting pink again as he began to walk with her back into the school.

"What's your next class?" asked April after giving their work to Merlin.

"Astronomy; you?"

"Math…too bad! I guess we could meet at noon at the cafeteria…?"

"S-Sure!"

The next hour seemed a lot much longer than usual for Artie. He tried the best as he could to listen to the teacher, but just couldn't! His mind wandered to April. April and him sitting next of each other, April and him kissing….Wait! He wasn't supposed to think of that! Not here, not now. But that would be so great….Dammit! Just stop you moron! He shook his head a little to help him focus on the class. This was going to be a really long hour.

---

On her side, April wasn't having as hard a time as Arthur. Everything was new to her here, so she barely had time to think. It was as if she was being controlled by a big tornado. She didn't mind it, though. She liked it when life is full of action and unexpected situations. Before she knew it, class was over, but she still had one more class before lunch break: gym.

* * *

**Author's note :** Hope you've had fun reading my first chapter. I wanna say a special thanks to one of my friends who found the name of April for me ! Thank you :) 

**Update:** I also wanna say a **big** THANK YOU to AllzStar who corrected and improved the text of this chapter (next are to come). I even found myself laughing like "Aaah this is sooo funny!" and then I was like "Wait it's my story... and I laugh... Weird

Really, it's much better now and so much more fun to read!

I could almost gave her the title of co-author as she really improved it! Have I said thank you? ;)


	2. Chapter 2  Looking like a boy

**Disclaimer :** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note :** I've done kind of a "deal" with my boyfriend, if I get 100 reviews, we can go to New York city ! So please do some reviews ! In fact, I'm not sure if he took it really seriously...but it will only be fun when I'll show up and say : "Here's the 100 reviews you've asked me, we can go to NY now?" :D Btw, it can be good or bad reviews. I'm not the type who gets emotional easily...at least, not for a story ! ;)

**Update :** This chapter has been revised too! It it much more better now. Thanks to AllzStar:)

Oh, and for the New York city thing. My boyfriend is really afraid of travelling, so I've made another deal with him. We'll go to Old Orchard Beach instead. Less exciting, but well if I want to get trough his fear we must start somewhere.

* * *

April went to the change room and put on her sport uniform. She hated the uniform of that school. _'How are we supposed to do sports in a dress? No…I will not wear that ugly thing. Hope my uniform will do…_' She changed herself again but this time put on her own clothes for sports. She wore a white camisole with the logo of her previous school on the back, a pair of crimson red Bermuda shorts and white running shoes. When she went out of the stall, all the girls still in the changing room stared at her; some of them was even trying to suppressed their giggles.

"I guess you've taken the wrong change room," sneered Guinevere, "The boys' one is to the left." Guinevere laughed and her posse laughed with her.

April decided to ignore her comment. She supposed Gwen was a little mad at her because of the quarrel she had had with Lancelot because of her. It wasn't as if it was really her fault, but April let it go anyway.

When she entered the jousting field, everyone stared at her. She could even swear that some guys and even some girls were admiring her boldness. The teacher, on the other hand, didn't seem so impressed. He ran over to her with an angry look on his big face.

"What are you're wearing? Where's your uniform?" he shouted.

"I feel better in shorts for doing sports, sir," she answered calmly.

"Every girl does sports in their dress and they do not complain!" he continued in the same loud tone.

"Well I'm a girl and I complain!" she shouted back. _'Dammit, calm down! Try to at least make a decent first good impression… '_ she thought, calming herself down quickly. "I'm sorry… it's not my type to yell, but could you please let me do sports in these clothes this time? If you think that might affect the class, just let me know after this class and...I'll wear that stupid dress."

"You've got nerve. I like that." He folded his arms and looked as if he was thinking.

April stood there silently, waiting for what would happen next.

"…But you will not get away with this easily after yelling at me." He smiled.

April bitted her lips. _'What have you gotten yourself into now?'_ She asked herself with a groan.

"I've heard there was a new girl in school, I suppose it's you."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, you wanna look like a boy; you'll have to take gym like one. You are to take the test I give to the boys in my class." He smiled coyly. "If you get trough this…I'll let you wear your outfit." He turned around and cupped one hand over the side of his mouth. "BOYS!" he shouted at the other end of the field as he made sign for them to approach.

"COULD YOU WAIT JUST A SECOND, SIR?" Lancelot shouted back, "I WANNA PRACTICE ON MY JOUST TECHNIQUES ONE MORE TIME!"

"YEAH, SURE, GO AHEAD!" The teacher turned back at April. "Alright, follow me please, Miss…?"

"April Grey, sir."

"Miss Grey."

She followed her teacher as asked. He placed her on the beginning of a running track.

"Get into start position here. Your test will begin after Lancelot finishes his joust."

She nodded. April turned around to see Lancelot preparing to dash towards the dummy at the other end of the field with his lance in position. When he took off she followed him with her eyes as he moved through the jousting field, his horse at a full gallop, and finally hit the dummy square in the chest with the lance. April narrowed her eyes as the dummy was knocked into the air. It wasn't a real dummy; it was an actual guy! She watched the poor dummy fly a long time before it hit the ground hard.

She couldn't stay there and do nothing. Everyone was laughing at the dummy and congratulating Lancelot. What was ground not moving.

She knelt beside him. "Can you hear me?" she asked quietly. 

"…Y-Yeah…" he whispered throatily.

She could see through the holes in the wooden helmet he wore that he had his eyes shut. He groaned in pain.

"Where are you hurt?" she wanted to know, getting a little more worried.

"My ribs…" he gasped.

She barely grazed his upper chest with the tips of her fingers. "Is it there?"

"Ouch!" he winced. "Y-Yes it is." He groaned again and let his head fall back onto the ground.

"What's happening here?" said the teacher as he approached his students. He rolled his eyes when he saw the boy on the ground. "C'mon, Artie, suck it up. You hear me?"

_'What? This guy Artie?'_ thought April, stunned.

"Yes…sir," he replied weakly.

"Good. Now, April, don't try to get around the test by pretending you care about Artie. I'm not a fool you know! No one cares about him. Now get going!"

Arthur's eyes flew wide open. _'April!?'_

"But sir! Artie needs help! He's hurt! We should at least bring him to the infirmary! And you should at least care about him…you're his teacher!"

"April, I know my job. Now, you've already shouted at me for the uniform, and I will not let you get away with telling me how to treat my students!"

"Yes…sir." she said through barred teeth.

"Now go at the beginning of the running track. Now!" he added when she made no move to do so.

She frowned and turned back to Artie. "You're sure you're gonna be alright?"

"Yes…. April, don't get into trouble because of me," he whispered.

"April Grey, don't mess with me!" screamed Mr. Draecher.

She ignored him. She put her hands on either side of the wooden helmet and removed it. She could see him now. He was smiling at her. She could see, now that the sunlight was bathing his face warmly, that he had some freckles; very subtle, but still there. She thought it was cute. _'Cute? What are you thinking, girl? Get a grip of yourself!'_

"Thanks April," he said shyly.

She grinned at him.

"I'm beginning to loose my temper…" said the teacher, getting very pissed off.

April offered Artie a hand and helped him to his feet. "I should go now…before Mr. Draecher kills me!" She winked. She turned to the teacher."I'm ready!" she smiled. 

She hadn't realized that she'd been the center of attention for the last two minutes. Everyone seemed rather surprised, because of the way she acted nonchalantly with the teacher, because of her outfit and because of the strange bond that she seemed to have with Artie.

---

Arthur dragged himself with difficulty up to the stage. He had one hand on his stomach and he was limping. Each step he took was very painful, but he endured the pain. He sat in the first row looking at April's test. He was wondering what the teacher would make her do after what had just happened.

"Now April, it's very easy. You just have to run down the track; but there's a twist: you'll have to be faster than Lancelot!"

_'Dammit! She's gonna lose. No one runs faster than Lancelot!'_ thought Artie with despair.

---

April positioned herself to get a faster departure and Lancelot, being the git that he was, tried to taunt her by remaining standing. 'You think you're so great that you don't have to get in the depart position, eh? Well, I'll show you I'm not the girlish type! I-WILL-NOT-LOSE!' she repeated this last part of her thought for karma.

The teacher asked a student to stand at the other side of the track to verify who'll arrive first. He did this only to be polite; he knew who would win the race. Lancelot was his best student and no one had ever beaten him. He pointed his arms up, to let them know to get ready. Lancelot and April were now waiting for the signal to start. The teacher lowered his arm quickly and shouted, "GO!"

April started to run as fast as she could.

On the stage everyone was very surprised. Some were even standing on their bench because the tension was so high. The cheerleaders were encouraging Lancelot with their songs and dance; only Guinevere did not take part in the show.

The distance between April and Lancelot was very thin. She'd taken Lancelot by surprise; he didn't think he would have such a fierce opponent! April might actually win and Lancelot was having a hard time. _'I'm gonna win!'_ she thought with glee, _'I'm gonna win! I…LOST?'_

It all happened so quickly! One second she was in the lead, and then the next Lancelot gave his final sprint and beat her. There was only one second's difference between the two.

She lost. She couldn't believe it! Lancelot's posse ran to him exclaiming their joy and the cheerleaders were jumping like crazy and cheering. She turned to Arthur, a look of deception in her eyes. He was still sitting on his bench, waiting.

The teacher came beside her "I suppose we'll see you dressed as a girl next week, then?" he said smugly, smirking.

She glared at him and went to see Artie.

"That was a great race!" exclaimed Arthur.

"Yeah, but I still lost…and now I'll have to wear that death wish next week!" she pointed at the girls wearing the dresses.

He laughed, but then winced, grabbing his chest. "Ow!"

"You're still hurt aren't you? Come on I'll bring you to the infirmary."

"Maybe that's not a bad idea…" He hissed and put back his hand on his stomach.

April took one hand of Arthur and put his arm behind her head so she could easily support his weight.

---

_'Too near, too near; she's too near!'_ he repeated to himself. He felt his heart beating very fast. He'd never been so close to a girl before.

"Are you alright, Artie? Your face is very red…"

"Y-Yeah! Must be because of my…ribs…"

"We should hurry then. It's not normal to get flustered…there must something else."

_'Yeah, there is…it's you,'_ he thought. He looked at the ground and said nothing.

When they arrived at the infirmary, the nurse hurried over to Artie and placed a hand on his shoulder. It was kind of obvious who the patient was.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I was the dummy for the jousting team…" Artie answered weakly.

"You mean…the dummy wasn't a real dummy? It was you?" She was surprised.

"Y-Yeah…that's it."

"This is unacceptable!" she fumed, "Has this been happening for a long  
time?"

"Two years ago..."

The nurse's lips puckered. "Well, the Lord had better be on the coach's side to be sure he lives when I'm through with him…lay down here, sweetheart; there's a doll."

He did as asked.

"Why didn't you come before…?" asked the nurse as she began searching around for something.

He shook is head. "I don't know…"

"Bloody coach," she hissed, "I never quite got why that man was hired. I knew right from the start that he was biased as a lion. Now. Where does it hurt?"

"My ribs and stomach...that's where the lance hit me."

"Alright. It's probably only a bruise, but I'll check it over anyway. Take off your shirt."

April, who was still standing there watching the whole scene, was now blushing. "I…um…I gotta go!" she said quickly.

Artie was relieved; he wasn't too comfortable with being shirtless in front of April...or anyone else for that matter.

"No, I must talk to you too," said the nurse before April could leave, "I need to ask you some questions." She turned back to Artie. "What are you waiting for? Take off that shirt!"

He did as demanded feeling very uneasy. April was trying to listen to the nurse, but in vain. She couldn't help but just stare at Artie, trying not to gape. He didn't seem like this with clothes on; then he just looked downright scrawny, but he was actually very well-built.

"Are you listening to me?" asked the nurse.

"Hum…W-What?" she cried, coming out of her reverie. _'Nice going April…Very subtle!'_ she thought bitterly.

The nurse looked at April, who was now blushing furiously, and understood everything. She smiled. "You can go to my office and wait if that will be morecomfortable for you. I'll need to talk to you after."

"Yes'm!" It had been interesting to see Artie looked so…well…attractive…but she was feeling uncomfortable; she knew it wouldn't have been hard to see how she was feeling.

She left the room, leaving Artie alone with the nurse.

"Well, let's see what's happened here." The nurse began examining his upper chest. "Must be that red spot on your chest… Or is that just flustered? Like your face?" She smiled knowingly at the injured boy.

He reddened even more. "I-I'm not blushing."

"Of course you aren't." Her smile broadened and she touched his chest where it was red.

He hissed.

"Well, nothing is broken," she told him after a few minutes of examining. "You'll have a big bruise on your chest, though, and it will be a painful healing process. I suggest you take the afternoon off to rest and drink lots of water. Okay?"

He nodded, relieved.

"Now come on, we'll go join your friend in my office."

Arthur put his shirt back on hastily and followed the nurse to her office. He sat beside April and the nurse took her place behind her desk.

"Your friend is fine, girl. You can relax," she said with a smile to April.

April visibly relaxed. "Great!" she turned to Artie to smile at him; he smiled back.

"I'll talk to your teacher, so that won't happen again," she promised firmly.

She turned to April. "Thank you for bringing him here."

"Its nothing." she answered shyly.

She looked at Artie and then pulled out a pen and a piece of paper. "I'll inform the teachers of your absence this afternoon. You can go to your chamber and rest now, and I'm sure your little friend here won't mind bringing your lunch up." She turned back to April. "And if anything else like this happens, you come straight here and tell me. Same goes for you," she added, looking at Artie.

They nodded in agreement, said thank you, and left her office.

"I guess we won't be eating together at lunch; but I'll bring you a tray," added April, remembering what the nurse had said, "Guess I'll see you later, then...We can have lunch together tomorrow, okay? "

"Y-yeah. M-Maybe tomorrow," he stammered. He still couldn't believe April had done all that for him.

She smiled and waved good-bye as she went o the cafeteria alone.


	3. Chapter 3 Got fooled again

**Disclaimer :** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note :** Youhou! Already five reviews! Thanks to all of you. Well I will not stay longer here and I'll go outside to benefit a little of the nice weather we have for this St-Jean-Baptiste day (day of festivity for Quebeckers!). Enjoy the reading!

* * *

As Arthur as his afternoon to relax, April went to the cafeteria alone. She moved to the cafeteria counter, took a plate and looked at what she could eat. 

"Hey there…April, right?" asks Guinevere.

April startle a little. "Hum yeah…" she answered unsurely because she didn't know if she could trust her after the comment she had said in the changing room.

"How's your arrival in our school?" she said concerned.

"…Erm, actually great. If I forget about some mean comment I've received." She looked up at the woman behind the counter. "I'll take the number one, please."

"Sorry for this." she said sheepishly. "I'll take number one too" she adds more confident.

"It's ok; I guess you were mad about me because Lancelot asked me to work with him? But I swear, he doesn't interest me." she insisted.

"…I know, it's not you… it's _him_. We had a quarrel this evening and…"

"I saw it with Artie! It was actually kind of funny!"

"We broke up…"

"_Dammit, you and your big mouth!_' she thought bitterly. "Sorry, didn't know about that…"

"It's ok. It was kinda hard, but you know it's been a while it didn't work very well. He was always looking everywhere else to see if he could find better than me."

"He sucks." April and Guinevere received their food.

"Yeah!" Guinevere laughs. "So, April… what about you and Artie anyway?" she seemed now more interested.

"…Don't really know." she blushed.

"You so damn know! Look how your face matches with your sleeves!"

April reddened even more and followed Guinevere at one table. "You know, the first time I saw you this evening, I thought you were the kind 'bitchy popular girl', I guess I was wrong."

"Oh well. No too wrong! I assume myself, I'm kinda bitchy, as you say it, but I like it. I'm not a bad person, tough. I just do not have my tongue in my pocket!" she laughed. "So, if I say something that hurts you, like this evening, don't take it the bad way. It's just the way I am." she smiled. "But…you're so not gonna get over with it! Don't change the subject! What it is with you and Artie?... Are you in _love with him_?" she sounded disgusted.

"Would it be a bad thing?"

"No…just kinda strange. He's not the more popular one y'know."

"I noticed." She pointed out. "But I just don't get it why? I mean… he's sweet and funny… he has such a smile… His eyes, his look…is so tender, so true… He has beautiful curly blond hair. Oh! And he's so sexy when he's bare chest, it doesn't seem like it but y'know he's well…"

"Ewww! Ok, ok I get it! Now stop before I threw up!" she insisted.

She laughs "Ok I get it, I disgust you!"

"Kind of! But that's great; we'll never have a crush on the same guy!"

"I didn't say I had a crush, it's just that…"

"You're only obsessed with all the parts of his anatomy, yeah I got it… it isn't a crush…"

"Stop mocking at me, it's not funny!" she laughed.

"Eh, that comes with the 'bitchy' part of me!" Guinevere winked. She then realized something. "Did you say you saw Artie bare chest? Now you're a naughty one! Only one day here…what am I saying…Only one _morning_ here and you corrupt Artie!" she smiled viciously.

"No, no, no, no! Wait it's not that!"

"Yeah, yeah, you can keep your little secrets, it's o.k., I understand all this."

"No, listen!"

"Really…it's fine!"

"No it's not …" she now realised she still didn't know her name. "By the way, what's your name?"

"…Guinevere. Changing the subject again isn't it?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Now Guinevere, please listen to me, I'm telling the truth. You remember that Artie was hurt after being hit by…Lancelot at the jousting field?"

"Uh-uh..." she answered not sure at where this could explain the fact that she had seen him bare chest.

"I escorted him to the nursery and the nurse asked him to take his shirt off, I wanted to go but she insisted to stay there, so I saw him…without his shirt." she blushed.

"Oh…this is less exciting, my version was better."

"Guinevere!" said one of her friends waving at the two. She joined them. "You-were-totally-amazing April!"

"F-for what?" she asked surprised.

"For what?!" she exclaimed. "Well, for the run!"

"I did lose…" she reminded.

"But you nearly won! Didn't you saw everybody gawking? It-it was just unbelievable!"

"Why… It's just a guy…He's not like a superhero with super-power."

"…In fact, kind of… No one has ever beaten him and that the second guy who ran near as fast as him, as a 3 seconds difference with his best score. The only thing is, today he broke his record with two seconds less, so you did broke his last record too with one second less. Do you know what it means?"

"That the teacher fooled me!"

"Nooo! Well, maybe… But that's not the point! It makes you one of the better in sports in here." she stated.

"Just because I run fast…?"

"Well, if you're good at that, you're surely great elsewhere, isn'it?" she asked.

"…Like cheerleading?" added Guinevere.

"Oh…I see. So you want me to join the team?"

"Uh-uh" they nodded together.

"We need one more person in the team for doing the competition and you seem great in sport. What could we ask more? Please, join the team." Guinevere begged.

"Sorry but… no."

"But…why?" asked the other girl.

"I'm not that kind of girl…waving pom-pom … smiling and supporting the team. I'm more…the one _in_ the team. Y'see?"

"Aww… Come on! Please, pretty please! Just try one day with us! If you don't like it, you'll stop. We promise."

She sighed. "Ok. Sounds like a deal." She gave her hand to confirm the deal.

"So be at the jousting field tomorrow at 7am."

"What? This must be a joke! Tomorrow's Saturday!"

"No, it's not. Tomorrow's father and son day! There'll be a lot of people early in the morning… we must practice before they all arrive. Sorry we've gotta go! Bye-bye!"

The two girls stood up, waved good-bye and left.

'_Well, you've got fooled again April…_'

The afternoon passed rather quickly because she had only two lessons. In her last class, the teacher asked her to go see the principal of the school. They talked for a moment of nothing in peculiar, just for seeing if her arrival was as she expected. She took that chance to slip a comment on the physical education teacher. In the end, he told her what was the number of her chamber and told her that all her bags was on her bed ready to be undo.

"345-347-349…Here it is 351."

April stood in front of her chamber.

She sighed. '_Wonder who will be my roommate…_'

She knocked on the door.

"Yeah, comes in." a familiar guy voice told her.

'Who could this be...?' she tried desperately to replace the owner of the voice in her mind, but she had seen to much people today and just couldn't figure it out.

She turned the handle and slowly opened the door.

"Hi… I'm your new roommate and…AAH!" she screamed.

Now that the door was fully opened, she knew who her roommate was.

"Nice to see you're happy to see me. Make yourself comfortable; do as if you were at home here." The guy told her.

"In fact, I'm kind of at home…it's my chamber too y'know."

She looked at who was sitting on his bed, reading. This was actually a bad dream, a really bad dream. She went to her bed, discouraged. She began to undo her luggages.

The guy stopped reading and began looking at her. She could feel his gaze upon her.

"Please…stop doing that." she said.

"Doing what?" the guy asked.

"Looking at me like that! As if I was a big piece of ham!" she blurted out pretty unnerved.

"S-Sorry, didn't want to make you feel uneasy." he stuttered.

"Well, you do." she pointed out.

"…I just thought…"

She sighed. "Thought what?"

"That you would make a great Queen! Do you want to be part of our association and be our Queen?"

'_Oh boy…it begins…_'

"No sorry…whoever you are. I'm not gonna be…your Queen."

The guy seemed disappointed.

"By the way, my name's Bryan." Add the nerd.

She didn't mention her name back. Anyway, he probably knows it already. She barely nodded when he told his name. She knew it wasn't really nice of her, but she didn't want him to be attached. His last roommate in her previous school was deeply in love with her and she had to tell him again and again that she just wasn't interested in him. Ironically, his last roommate was a nerd too. She spent the rest of the evening sitting on her bed with only one light over her head on, so she could have a dimmed lighting. The two roommates were very quiet. Suddenly, Bryan broke the silence.

"Hey…April."

'_So he does know my name_' she thought. She turned her head to face him.

"What are you drawing? It's been at least three long hours you're only doing that." he asked curiously.

She didn't really know in fact what she was drawing, she'd only knew after she had finished, because when she drew, all was done very instinctively. She flew back the pages of her big sketch book to the beginning and watched her drawing. Her eyes widened. She closed her sketchbook.

"Nothing really important… Just some crappy things."

"May I see?" he said very excited.

"No sorry… it's my stuff. It's personal."

He seemed disappointed again. "Ok. I understand." He turned back to read his book.

She felt now pretty bad. '_You're doing exactly what you don't want the people to do to Artie: made him feel miserable. You should be ashamed of yourself_.' Damn conscience.

"Look." She blurted out.

He turned back with hope in his eyes.

"I will not show you these drawings… but I'll make one only for you tomorrow, ok?"

He nodded eagerly. "Thanks April! You're so nice!"

'_Yeah…You're in deep shit again April._'

She then remembered what Guinevere said to her: tomorrow's gonna be the "father and son day". She put back her shoes and took a thin coat to go outside.

"Where are you going?" asked Brian.

"I'm going to inform my parent of the special day we have tomorrow. I'll be back in a few." she answered.

She went out of the dormitory, walked in the school fields and went to the post wing of the school. In this room, there were a lot of delivery birds, she just had to write a note, attach it to one leg of a bird and it would send the message very quickly.

Half an hour later, the bird came back with another message on his leg. She unwrapped the message, it was saying: "Nice, we'll be there tomorrow at eleven in the morning. Love you. Your parents." She threw the message in the trash basket, she had her answer. She yawned. '_Looks like it's time to sleep…Tomorrow you'll have to wake up early…really early in the morning…_'

She went back to her dormitory, turned off the light and went to bed.

---

Artie, on his side, did not have a very exciting day since he was confined on his bed doing absolutely nothing. At least, no one was poking him. He alternated his activities between looking at his ceiling, reading books and looking at his ceiling. He wasn't really able to concentrate on anything in fact; he kept thinking of April and futile things.

Suddenly, the door of the chamber flew open. His roommate was now back. He was fat, wore glasses and has brown hair with an awful monk haircut.

"Artie, I need to talk to you."

Artie was surprised, normally they never talked together. In fact, Artie weren't talking to a lot of people normally, anyway. This was really a weird day.

"Erm…yeah?" asked unsurely Artie.

"I want you to stop talking to April."

Artie blinked and laughed. "Really funny, Jason!"

"I'm serious. She's our future Queen! She will not get corrupted by such a vile thing like you."

He laughed harder. "Your Queen? Now, that's really funny. Does she know she's your future…Queen?" he suppressed some giggles.

"Brian is supposed to ask her tonight, he's his roommate, couldn't this be more obvious how destiny is bringing them together?"

"So…Brian's your King if I understand well?"

"He is. He's the most valuable player we've ever had in our games! The least is to call him our King!"

"Yes…It's the least you can do…" he rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I will not stop talking to her, she's the first person who show a little interest in me, I will not let this just pass away!"

"So, it's war then." he said nonchalantly.

"And what will you do? Turn me into a frog?" he laughed.

"No, we'll do worse than this." he smirked.

"Yeah…Can't wait to see what your mischievous plot is!" he turned in his bed, facing his wall, because he didn't want to see the face of Jason for the rest of the evening. '_How can he even ask me this? It's unbelievable! Poor April, hope it didn't went too bad on her side._' '_What if she accept?_' asked an another voice in his head. '_Naaah, impossible!_' the first voice said reassuringly. '_But still…_' the other voice added finally. Now, Artie couldn't help but feeling a little jealous. He fell asleep after a couple of minutes very exhausted of the strange day he had just passed.


	4. Chapter 4  Father and son day

** Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

** Author's note:** Gee, this chapter's very long… I couldn't really cut through it. Hope you'll enjoy it!

By the way, thanks to all of you, you're really encouraging me to continue my story!

* * *

The next morning, the first thing April heard was the unpleasant sound of her buzzer. She slammed her alarm clock, grumbled and got up on her feet. '_They will pay for this..._' she thought bitterly as she made her way to the bathroom. She turned to see Brian sleeping in his bed and snoring loudly '_At least **he's** sleeping…_'. 

An hour later, she entered the jousting field with her usual sport uniform. She knew the physical education teacher wouldn't be there, so she decided to be at ease. When Guinevere saw her, she went to see her.

"Happy to see you survived your early wake-up!" she grinned.

She returned a fake smile. "Let's see if it was worth the pain!"

"Oh, I'm sure you're gonna enjoy the practice!" she added joyfully.

"…If you say so."

"Now here are your pom-poms!" Guinevere gave her one red and one yellow pom-pom.

April grimaced at the sight of it. "I'm already regretting it!" she laughed.

"Aww, come on! Cheer up! It's fun, I swear. First, we'll show you our choreography. You can sit on a bench, if you want too."

April did as asked and watched. The girls weren't bad. In fact, they were really great, but these clothes they were wearing…were not helping them at all! They finish their little representation after three minutes.

"So…" Guinevere took her breath "What do you think?" she waited for an answered eagerly.

"Not bad, really!"

"Great!" she clapped her hands together "So you're in, aren't you?"

"...Maybe."

Guinevere frowned. "Why…maybe?"

"Because I have one condition."

"You really love dealing, isn't it?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of." she smirked.

"…So, what's the deal?"

"Ok, I think you have potential, but your clothes are restraining your movements. Let me do a new design for your uniform and I'm in."

"This is it?"

"Yeah. That's all."

"Okay… What do you think girls?" she turned to her friends.

Everyone was about to say yes when a girl in the back interfered.

"What's the big deal with her, anyway? Yeah, she does run fast, but that doesn't mean she has the capabilities for being a cheerleader. Doesn't anyone want to see what she's able to do…before taking her in the team?" she stated. "Show us what you can do!" added the girl.

"Sure!"

April stood up, tucked her hair into a ponytail, took her distance from the team and began to run to gave her a run-up. She, then, performed a side wheel, followed by some flips and she finished with a somersault.

Guinevere was dumbfounded. She was just perfect for them. "See? She's great! Do our costumes, as you want to, and… welcome!" she grinned and opened her arms as if she wanted to give her a hug.

They, then, noticed the people that were standing on some benches and acclaiming her.

"Everyone already loves you!"

She couldn't say a word. She was amazed by all these people applauding her. She wasn't a reject in her last school, but she never had so much attention. All this was very new to her. She noticed that Artie was one of them, cheering her. She began her way to him.

"You were amazing, April!"

She turned to see who was the one who made that comment, only to see… Brian.

"…Thanks."

"So…You've made your drawing for me?" he asked.

"Not yet… the day is just beginning. Normally, I'm still sleeping right now. I promise you will have it…just be patient, ok?"

"Nice! Because I want to laminate it and we could put this drawing in our association room as a marvellous gift from our Queen!"

She sighed. "Brian… I thought I've made myself clear last night… I will not be your Queen…EVER. Now, excuse me, I was about to see Artie."

"You like him a lot isn't it?" he said trough his teeth.

"He's a good friend." She answered too quickly.

"Yeah… A good friend. I'll see you tonight then."

Brian knew to well that she was lying. She answered too fast as if she had something to hide. He had to do something with Artie; he was becoming too fierce as a rival. He looked on the stage, only to see HIS Queen talking with Artie. They seemed to have a lot of fun together and he wasn't enjoying this at all.

---

"I didn't know you were so…athletic!" said Artie bemused.

"I'm not too bad in sport, I told you."

"Not bad? You're awesome!"

"Gee…Thanks!" she smiled. "So, am I gonna meet Mr. Pendragon today?"

"In fact…I…" the smile on his face disappeared.

"What is it Artie?" she asked concerned.

Lancelot heard the conversation as he was passing not too far from them and he decided he could take advantage of the situation to laugh a little of Artie.

"Hey Artie!" he waved, approaching the two.

'_Oh no… not good._' though Artie. He wanted to go away from here. He didn't want to talk to Lancelot; god knows what he will do again to taunt him.

"So…Where's your father Artie?" he asked naively. "He's not here this year?" he added faking surprise "Oh, yeah… He didn't come last year, or the year before. In fact, he never came to see you, isn't it? Must be really hard for someone to know that no one loves you…not even your _father_."

Artie began to shake as rage was filling his body. He didn't want April to know that, he didn't want her to think less of him because he hadn't had any family left.

"…Is that true…Artie?" she turned to face him.

"Well…erm…"

"Well, gotta go, Artie…_My_ father is waiting for me." He finished before leaving them alone, smiling triumphantly.

"Oh Artie…I don't know what to say…" she murmured.

"Well, just say nothing." He turned his back to her so she couldn't see the tears that were now filling his eyes. "It's not important, really…"

"What are you saying? It _is_ important… How your life must have been miserable these past years, having no one to talk too."

He stood there silent. His fist clutched very hard. April put one hand on his shoulder. He tense at the beginning and then relax a little.

"I don't want you to think less of me…" he muttered.

"Why would I? You're the nicest person I've met in my entire life. I just think you've been alone for too long… but I'll be there now, by your side."

He looked at her, his eyes still wet.

"You mean it?"

She smiled. "Sure! I'm serious, really. Now, get a grip of yourself!" she poked his arm.

He forced a smile. He then realized how lucky he was to have her now, today. This was actually one of the hardest days of the year, along with Christmas, because he was alone. This year he wouldn't be and that thought brought some warmth in his heart.

---

April was happy to have cheered him up, at least, a little. Then, something struck her '_Dammit, my parents are waiting!_' She looked at the clock tower. Artie noticed that she looked away to see the clock.

"Are you waiting for someone?" he asked.

"No, in fact, someone's waiting for me! It's my parents… and I'm already late! Sorry, I must go!" she said hastily before beginning her way to the front door of the school.

She stopped on her track just before leaving the jousting field. She turned to look if Artie was still there; he was. He was sitting there alone on one bench, his head down, looking at the ground. She ran to him.

"You can come with me, y'know. I'm sure my parents will be please to see that I have already a good friend in my new school!" she knelt before him.

He tilted his head. "You known, you're not obligated to do this…"

"I know, but I want to. Now come on." she stood up and he followed her.

---

He was stressed to see the parents of April. It's been a while since he's been around adults… if we forget the teachers. He hoped her family would love him.

He saw April waving at two persons besides the front door of the school. They seemed to be around forty years old. The man was tall and thin; he was beginning to have some grey hair and looked like a joyful person. The woman was still very beautiful '_like her daughter_' he thought. She had short messy brown hair with red locks and was about the same height than April. April seemed to have her eyes, but he couldn't be sure as he was too far from them.

Artie already thought they seemed like very nice person, only by their smile. They were warmth and inviting. April gave a hug to both her parents. The father of April notices the guy standing behind her daughter.

"Who is it, April? One of your friends? he asked with a grin on his face.

She looked at Artie and back to her parents "Oh! Sorry, I forgot to do the presentation! Artie, my parents: George and Sylvia. Parents, here's my good friend: Arthur.

"Your good friend, eh?" his father raised an eyebrow. "Well, nice to meet you, boy!" he shook the hand of Artie.

Artie smiled nervously. "N-Nice to meet you to Mr. Grey."

The mother of April approach Artie to give him a kiss on each cheek. He stepped back a little. She put her hand on his shoulders and gave him a peck. He tensed as she touched him. He wasn't used to human contact at all.

"Now, you're a shy boy, aren't you?" she laughed.

"Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Grey." he stuttered.

"How polite he is, I already love him!" she clapped her hands together. "So, where's your family, boy? I could get along with your mother while you're doing the activities with your father!"

He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. He hated to say that he's alone.

"His father is out for business. He couldn't be there today." April said to bring him out of this awkward situation.

"Poor boy. Your father's a busy person?" asked Sylvia.

"…I guess…He doesn't come often, in fact." he forced a smile.

"Well, we'll not stay here and do nothing today, isn't it? Artie, if you ain't got any father for you today, I'm gonna be your father for one day! I want to do theses activities, it's been a while I hadn't had some fun! Whaddya think of that, son?"

The eyes of Artie start glowing of pure joy. Never had he been so happy. April's father was so nice! He would have a father…for one day.

"S-Sure!" his grin was so big it could reach his ears.

They began their ways to the jousting field, where the celebration was about to take place. April and Sylvia was following them not too far behind.

"By the way, April, why are you carrying pom-poms?" asked Sylvia puzzled.

"Oh! Erm…Some girls convince me to join their group…" she answered ashamed.

"My! That's great, April! I see you've made friends very easily. I'm so happy for you!" said excitedly her mother. "Plus, I can't wait to see you as a cheerleader." she laughed.

"Mom, it's not funny at all…" she blushed.

---

Later on, Artie and George were doing the line to give their name for the competition and Sylvia and her daughter were taking their seat.

"This guy seems very nice, is he?" asked Sylvia.

"He really is." she nodded.

"His face reminds me someone, tough…" she put one hand on her chin, thinking. She shook her head. "This isn't really important anyway, isn't?"

She was about to answer her mother when Guinevere appeared beside her.

"April! What are you doing here? You need to cheer our contestants!"

She blinked at the sudden apparition of her friend. "Gwen! What a surprise! Let me present you my mother: Sylvia. Mother, here's Guinevere."

"My! I'm please to meet you dear Guinevere." she stood up and gave her a peck.

"Nice to meet you too." she smiled at the mother of April and turned back to her friend "Now come on, we've got to go, its part of your duty now!"

"I knew there was a trap somewhere…" she shot an evil glare to her friend.

Guinevere shrugged and took her hand to guide her to the rest of the cheerleaders. April waved goodbye to her mother while she was carried by Guinevere. She gave to her mother a sympathetic look and said an inaudible "sorry", knowing she would read on her lips.

"Happy to see you always have your pom-poms." said Guinevere waving hers.

"Yeah…Now what I gotta do? I do not know any of your little songs and choreography."

"Oh, don't be afraid! It's just for fun today… Just entertain people on the benches and cheer on whoever you want… Even Artie if you want too." she winked. "I'm really surprised, in fact, he's never at the competition usually… it's the first that time I saw him with his father. I must say, his father's very hot!" she grinned dreamingly.

"That's totally eewish."

"Why? Because he's a man with a lot of experience? I love them older. I bet he's much better than Lancelot in be…"

"STOP! Too far."

"What? It's too much for the chaste and pure person that you are?" she smiled tauntingly.

"…Gwen…It's–_my_–father."

"Ahah! Really funny, April." she laughed nervously, but by the severe look of her friend she knew she was telling the truth. "Oh… now this is embarrassing."

April stuck out her tongue in disgust. "I'll do as if I didn't hear anything, 'kay?"

---

Meanwhile, Artie and George were waiting in the changing room for the beginning of the contest.

"So… Arthur, when did you meet my daughter?"

"In a class, we worked together for a teamwork." he smiled nervously.

"And what is your father doing for a living?"

"Erm…" He opened his mouth, shut it and opened it again with his finger pointing up but no words came out of his mouth.

George tilted his head. "Son, are you alright?"

Lancelot, who was sitting not too far from them coughed into his water. "Son?" he blurted out. He turned to look at the one who were talking to Artie. "So you're his father?" he asked with a quizzical look on his face.

"For today, yes I am… Who's asking?"

"Lancelot. Nice to meet you, sir." he gave him his hand. Artie snarled. "I was taken aback to _finally_ see the father of Artie…" he turned his face to him and smile deviously. "…but now I kinda feel sorry for him that he's father haven't come to see him this year too. Poor him, he doesn't have a family anymore." he pouted. He looked back at the father of April. "Though, I'm really happy that he has a… fake father for today." he smirked.

Artie glared at him. He couldn't believe how this guy was having fun of seeing him suffering. Repeating him again and again that he doesn't have any family. Plus, all this comedy made him sick. Lancelot was the type of guy that everyone loved, but all his manners were fake. In fact, he was laughing at them in their face.

"As much as I appreciate your….caring for Arthur, I think he doesn't need someone to make him remember that his father isn't here today for him and I would really enjoy that you do not take me as a fool one, who would fall for your little character." he said politely.

"S-Sir. I wasn't faking, I really care about our little Artie, isn't it Artie?" he shot a glare to Artie.

Artie looked away. "He does care..." he mumbled.

George looked at Arthur surprised that he let himself being beaten this easily and knew that he lied. He had to do something to give him a little more self-confidence.

"See?" he smiled at George and went back to his father.

George smiled sympathetically for Arthur. He could only imagine how hard it could be, being left alone this young. They now heard a loud echoed voice that came from the jousting field.

"Now's the time everybody's waitiiiing for! Do you want the competition to start!?"

Everyone shouted "YEES!"

"Oh…I'm outta here… You do not seem thrilled enough for me…" the guy who had a cone in his hand, for giving him a louder voice, faked to go away. "Nah, I'm kidding… I'll let you have a second chance… Do you want the competition to start!? Scream very loud for me please!"

"YEEEEEEEEEEES!" everyone scream in excitement.

"Great! You're great! Now…let the teams enter the field!" he gesture his hand to the changing room door.

The teams entered one after another in the jousting field. When it was the turn of George and Artie, George took his 'son for a day' by his shoulders and made him look at him.

"Look son, there's nothing you have to be ashamed of not having a father, y'know that?"

He gave him a puzzled look. "It's just…that he didn't like me enough to…keep me with him, that's not very good for self-confidence…"

"Well, he was a fool. I've only been with you since an hour and I saw how a good boy you are and my girl noticed it too. Artie… you should be even more proud of you than anyone else here, got that?" he shook him a little by the shoulders.

"…Why?" he barely whispered.

"Because, you raised yourself alone and look what you've became. A wonderful boy, with good principles, good manners, modest and nice with everyone even if in return…they are not nice with you. You're a great person Arthur, remember that. Do not let anyone take this away from you. You understand, son? Now, lets show that little brat of Lancelot, who you can be." he looked at him seriously, his eyes locked with the ones of Arthur.

Arthur nodded; an approving sound barely went out his opened mouth. He was shocked by the situation, but it made him feel great; it gave him the boost he needed to give all that he had for the competition.

They finally went out of the changing room to see everyone on the benches around them, standing up and applauding all the participants. Arthur shivered. It felt so good to be the one who's applaud this year and not to be on the benches like the years before.

"Now… before the competition really begins. We need a little encouragement for the teams! I think the cheerleaders could make us the privilege to give us a little presentation!" he looked perversely at the cheerleaders.

---

"No…No-no-no-no. It's a joke?" April turned to look at Guinevere. "That was not in my contract!"

"We didn't sign any contract… and reassure you April I don't think its funny either we're not prepared at all for this… Let me arrange this." She made her the sign the wait with her fingers and went to see the commentator.

"Whaddya think you're doin', clever boy!" she snapped.

The commentator put his cone away from his mouth. "I'm trying to entertain…that's my job…What's the problem?"

"The problem is no one told us we had to do a dance for the contest. Plus, we have a new girl in our team since this morning and she doesn't know any moves of any of our choreography. Now arrange this, right away!"

The commentator cleared his throat, put the cone back on his mouth and began to shout. "Looks our cheerleaders have nothing for us today… Mean girls! Boooou!"

Everyone in the stage booed the girls too.

"What are you doing? You're not helping at all!" she said now pretty unnerved.

"Well…_I'M_ entertaining. Things you aren't doing."

"You….You…Son of a bit–!" she pointed at the guy very pissed off.

"It's ok, Gwen, I'll take care of this…" April put a hand on her shoulder. "Do your choreography… I'll try to follow you. At least, I'll give my best." she smiled.

"You'll do that?" said Guinevere with hope in her voice.

"Yeah… Hey you! Yeah you the pervert one who only want to see our underwear while we're jumping." she called the commentator. "Tell the audience that the cheerleaders are doing to overture."

The commentator smiled. "Good news people! You'll have your little show from the cheerleaders for the beginniiiing!" he went away of the center, giving the entire place for the girls.

The cheerleaders began their moves and April tried to follow them but she had always some seconds of delay. Her moves weren't very fluid, sometimes she did the movements to the left when everyone else was doing it to the right and she stopped one or two times to dance because she didn't know what she was supposed to do. When they finished, April hide herself behind her two pom-poms ashamed of her performance.

Guinevere approached her. "Nice going Mrs. I'm-so-good-in-sports." She taunted her.

"Oh, shut up." April poked her on the shoulder and laughed. "I know it was lame."

"It was, actually." she giggled.

"Hey! You're supposed to say: 'No, it was not that bad you know it's was your first try and you didn't know any moves'… Not 'It was, actually'."

"Oh! Well…Do as if I said what you wanted me to say."

She took her distance a little of April and added: "But I didn't." she winked.

April gapped and began running after her friend to hit her with her pom-poms.

---

Artie couldn't help but laugh, seeing April in this situation.

"Geez… I've seen my daughter doing better." He rubbed the back of his head.

"Actually, you should've seen her this morning, she was really great, being unprepared and all mustn't help her right now." he explained.

"I know, I'm very proud of her." He smiled at the sight of her daughter running after Guinevere.

"I understand why you're proud of her…she's clever, she's nice and she's' be…" '_Oh shit._' "…be….be….b-been a good friend!" he smiled nervously.

George raised an eyebrow and laughed.

The commentator went back in the middle of the jousting field. "Thanks to our cheerleaders for this hilarious moment…"

April glared at the commentator and Guinevere burst out laughing.

"…Now for the first trial, father and son will have to do a relay course." The commentator finished his sentence.

Sons placed themselves at the beginning of the alley, fathers at the middle. A referee declared the beginning of the course. Lancelot who was besides Arthur pushed him as it was beginning and Arthur fell hard on the floor. The referee whistled with his fingers to stop the course. Everyone was now standing on their benches, outraged.

George shot a killing look to Lancelot who just shrugged. The father of Lancelot put a hand on his face, ashamed of the behaviour of his child. Artie managed to stand up; he dusted off his shirt and was ready to continue. The father of April nodded proudly at him, Arthur sent the nod back.

Lancelot began the competition with minus five of points. They began again the course, but this time Lancelot behaved well. As expected, Lancelot and his father won, Lancelot being the one who ran faster in Worcestershire. The Davies team won second and the Pendragon team was third. That gave fifteen points for the first team because they had a penalty, fifteen points to the second team and ten points for the third.

"You're the best Artie!" shouted April waving her pom-poms, exaggerating every move she made, for taking fun of the cheerleaders role.

Arthur laughed at the sight of his friend doing stupid things.

"You're not bad at all!" said George.

Arthur stopped looking at the daughter of George.

"And you're really great Mr. Grey! We wouldn't have won the third position if it wouldn't have been of your skill!" he smiled.

The rest of the afternoon continued with different trial, the team of Lancelot has gained more points and was now in first position with seventy points, Pendragon team was second with fifty points and the Davies team was at the third position with forty points.

"Now for the final trial!" shout the commentator for having the attention back. "Our teams will have to show us their jousting talent!"

Lancelot hissed a "yes", knowing that no one could beat him at this.

It was, first, the turn of the fathers to go. The father of April managed his way to the final with the McBrearty team, but lost, at the end. It was now the turn of the sons to joust. At the surprised of everyone, Arthur was very good in jousting; all this time being a dummy helped him knowing the weak points of everyone. So, he managed his way too the final. His opponent was, indeed, Lancelot.

Lancelot prepared himself, Arthur could see him smile in satisfaction under his helmet before he started to rush to him. Arthur stayed still as he always did as a dummy, waiting for his opponent to approach him, when he was near enough he start to approach him at high speed and that took totally off guard Lancelot who wasn't used with Artie moving while doing a joust. That was enough for Artie to slam him hard on his chest. Lancelot fell from his horse. He lost the game. That was the biggest humiliation that Lancelot could have in his life: being beaten by Arthur in jousting.

That gave to the Pendragon team ten points and the McBrearty team ten points.

The final counting was made. At the first position there were the team of Lancelot, at the second position the Pendragon team and at the final position the McBrearty team who beaten the Davies team by five points.

---

"Hurray for Artie!" April shout in utter joy as she took her "job" as a cheerleader more seriously.

"You know, he impresses me…really…" said Guinevere gapping.

April glare at her.

"Oh but he's all yours, April…even if you do not have a crush on him… I just don't guaranty that the other girls will not start to notice him. Plus, everyone sees the bond that there is between the two of you and the other girls will think that he might have something interesting…" she winked.

"You think so…?" her voice was shaking a little "Not that I mind, though." she added regaining herself.

Guinevere looked weirdly at her friend. '_This situation is beginning to be fun._' she thought.

---

It was now the time for the team to climb on the podium. Lancelot, even if he won the first place wasn't smiling at all, for him, he lost because he didn't win against Artie. On the contrary, Artie who was second with the father of April was smiling as he never smiled in his life. George took the hand of Artie and brought it in the air. Everyone was applauding the winners. All this people surrounding him, it was dazing him but he liked it a lot, this feeling of being important.

Now that the competition was finished, everyone was now searching for their family in the crowd. Arthur and George went to see Sylvia who waited for them.

"You were so great, darling!" Sylvia kissed her husband. "Oh and you were to Arthur!"

He smiled shyly. April was running to them. When she arrived, she put her hands on her knees exhausted of all the dancing and running. She regained herself and was about to give a hug to Arthur to congratulate him but stop halfway.

"…You need a shower Artie. You stink." she laughed.

"Gee, thanks for being so kind! By the way, you weren't bad as a cheerleader. The dance part for the overture...it was a great moment." he said tauntingly.

"Ok, I deserve it." she laughed.

"Well, I think I'm gonna follow your advice and take a shower… Thanks for this wonderful day Mr. Grey. It was a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Grey."

He went alone to his chamber giving some time alone for April with her family.

* * *

** Author's note:** Ok, I know the alarm clock in the morning is a big anachronism, but she had to wake up! And there's a lot of wanted anachronism in Shrek too! ;) 


	5. Chapter 5  Yaar!

**Disclaimer :** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note :** Sorry it took longer than usual for the update... Before I had some spare chapters already written (yeah I cheated :P). It may take more time (again) for the next one because I go to my childhood village for the weed-end and I got no Internet, no computer, no Word to correct my most obvious mistakes, no French-English dictionary – Reverso as became one of my closest friend (eheh).

Hope you'll enjoy this one! It begins to be funny!

By the way, for one scene of this chapter, I suggest you to listen "The Pirates" of the Finding Neverland soundtrack. The song greatly inspired me. You'll know which scene I'm talking about when you'll be there. :)

* * *

Artie arrived to his bedroom, took some clean clothes, went to the bathroom and blocked the door, just to be sure. He looked at him in the mirror that was just above the wooden sink. He saw a very dirty, but happy man. He smiled. The sight of him happy made him even happier, as if he needed a proof of his happiness. 

He then thought of what April had said earlier _'…You need a shower Artie. You stink.' _He took off his shirt, raised his left arm and smelled his armpit. '_Ew. She may be right._' He was kind of embarrassed of the fact he smelt that bad in front of April, but it isn't as if he could help it after doing sport all the afternoon.

He finished undressing himself and stepped into the shower, he adjusted the water a little colder than usual because he was still sweating from all the muscular efforts he did. He washed all his body and mostly his face that was covered with dust and mud. When he finished he took some shampoo to wash his hair that were also covered of mud. He fought against the nodes in his hair and hissed when it hurt. He had almost finished rinsing his hair when the water came suddenly very hot.

"OW!" he shouted in pain.

He heard some laughing in the next room. Then, the water went totally cold.

"Agh!" he shouted again. He heard the laughing start again.

_'Yeah…very funny._' thought Artie.

He finished rinsing his hair very quickly before being burned or froze again. He went off the bathroom his hair still wet and looked around to see who the guilty ones were. No one was there. Still, he knew who it was and thought it was really a childish reaction. He passed a hand through his hair to separate his wet lock a little.

He looked around the other sink they had for their little kitchen in the chamber and found a note. It was saying: "This is only the beginning." He ripped the little piece of paper and put it in the trash basket. He sighed.

He decided to study a little his Magic class for the evening, as he knew they would have a test this week, so he took his _Advanced Magic_ book and went outside. He walked in the fields, getting away of the main place of his school. He sat on a tree, beside a little river. He liked this place because it was relaxing and no one ever came here, so he was never pummelled. He inspired a draft of fresh air, opened his book and began to study.

---

April said good-bye to her parents, hugged them both strongly and looked at them leaving the school. When they were far enough, she made her way to her dormitory.

She opened the door of her chamber, looked briefly if Brian was there or not, when she saw he wasn't there she suddenly felt relieved. She didn't think he was a bad guy but his evident obsession for her was really making her feel uneasy. She decided to take advantage of the fact she was still dress in a sport uniform to do her daily exercises. She did her three series of twenty-five push-ups with her thirty seconds pause between each, also her three series of sit-up.

She then heard some people walking in the hallway outside the room. It seemed to be two people, they were laughing together. She concentrated on the footsteps and realized they were coming in this bedroom. '_Shit._' she swore mentally. The door opened and she heard one of the guys talking.

"I would have paid to see his face! Just hearing him shouted in pain in his shower when we opened the water was worth, at least, a hundred _Magic_ cards!" the guy said with a high-pitched voice.

"Who shouted in his shower, Brian?" asked April visibly interested in the conversation now in a sitting position on the floor between the two beds.

Brian stepped back in shocked and collided into Jason with his back, he didn't thought she would be there already. He thought she would have stayed longer with her parents.

"Eeer… A guy in our association." he lied.

"You're kidding right? Might be another good reason for me to not enter your association… seeing how you treat your members…" she said deceived of what Brian was proud of having done.

He looked at his friend for some help, but Jason only raised his shoulders.

"April…I…It was only the initiation of a guy…We wouldn't do that to a girl and surely not to our Queen." he stuttered.

"Ugh! Stop it already with your Queen thing." she sighed. "…Look, Brian, I'm sorry…" she closed her eyes. "…You're very nice, but I can't. I do not love the things you love, so I can't be part of your association. For example, I do not play your _Magic_ card game because I just don't like it. I don't say it's a loser-game or anything like that…. You like what you're doing and this is great to have a passion, but I'm not in… Please, understand this." she said calmly.  
She lowered her head because she didn't want to see his face. She knew she had surely hurt him, even if she told him before she didn't want to be their Queen. She hated to hurt people's feeling.

She took some clothes and went to take her shower in the bathroom wanting to be anywhere but in the same room than Brian and his friend.

When April left the room, Brian turned to his friend.

"Ouf, that was close…" he murmured. "She would have really hated me if his name would have slipped in the conversation…" he added talking of Arthur.

"What do we do now?" asked Jason.

"Do what now?" Brian was puzzled.

"Well, she did tell you quite frankly that she didn't want to be part of our association…" his voice was becoming lower and lower as he talked.

"That's only a temporary state. Trust me, she'll change her mind." he smiled deviously. "Wanna play a game of _Magic_?" he added joyfully as if he didn't mind of just having been rejected by a girl.

He friend nodded eagerly, they sat on his bed and started to play.

April went out of the bathroom after approximately fifteen minutes. She was wearing some comfortable grey pants with a long white vest that finished around her middle-thigh; on the shirt she put the brown belt that the school gave her for her uniform. She was deceived to see that his roommate was still in the chamber with his friend so she decided to leave the dormitory and take a walk. She closed the door behind her. She was walking in the hallway when she remembered something she had to do. She slammed her head mentally. She went back to her room, opened the door, passed her head through the overture and looked at Brian.

"Brian, I'm gonna do your drawing when I'll return from my little walk, okay?"

"Okay." He answered casually.

'_Yeah…Okay…_' she thought bitterly. She closed the door of her room again and left the dormitory.

---

Artie studied his Magic lessons for about half an hour when he started to feel really sleepy. It has been a hard day physically and studying wasn't helping him at all for staying awake as he didn't have a lot more energy left. Artie was beginning to fell asleep on the tree when he felt someone knelt beside him. He gave a start and turned his head rapidly to where he felt that someone, to know who it might be.

"You don't stink anymore." April said playfully.

He blinked; he didn't expect her to be there. "I took a shower." he said blushing.

"I can see…I mean smell that." she laughed.

He tilted his head in embarrassment and looked at the grass. "How did you find me?" he asked without leaving his focus on the grass.

"Well, I was walking around and I found you dozing on this tree. I thought it could be fun to wake you up in an unexpected way. I could have been meaner and splashed some cold water of the river on you." she took a small pause. "What were you reading anyway that was so boring?" always squatted, she stretched her arm to take the book on the lap of Artie. "Oh, I see! It isn't the most entertaining lecture, is it?"

"No, it isn't" he said while yawning and then laughed.

April finally sat besides him leaning her back on the tree. She tilted her head and looked at him intensively.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked beginning to feel uneasy with her looking at him this way.

"How long have you known your father?" she asked still looking at him right in his eyes.

"That was the thing on your mind?"

She nodded.

"…Well, I was around nine when he dumped me here. He gave enough money to the teachers to let them keep me till my graduation." he forced a smile.

"And…before that…did he ever played or spent any time with you?"

"Not really. I mostly spent time with my mother, she was very nice, I loved her very much, but she died when I was eight. My father didn't know what to do with me as he never wanted me. He kept saying me I was a mistake. He then found that school… and you know the rest." he started to do patterns on the ground with a stick as he talked.

She did her best comforting smile. "Your mother must have been a beautiful woman."

"She was." he turned to face her and nodded.

Then she had an idea, something that could change his mind, something he surely haven't done a lot in his life. She stood up and began searching for something.

"What are you searching for…?" he asked surprised by the sudden move of his friend.

"Something…" she continued searching. "Got it!" she took a long branch of a tree that had fallen on the ground.

Artie looked at her puzzled. April put her right hand on her right eye to imitate a patch and she pointed the branch at Artie.

"Yaaar!" she said with a hoarse voice, then giggled.

Artie blinked twice. "What are you doing?" he said with a quizzical look on his face.

April went out of her character and sighed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm a pirate! Yaaar!" she said without changing her voice this time. "Now, en garde!" she regained her hoarse voice and she repositioned herself.

Artie start to laugh. "You can't be serious, can you?" he asked as a branch swooshes just beside his head. "So, you are… Alright, then!" he rolled himself back to stand up more easily and start to search quickly for a branch. From time to time he had to avoid her attack by turning and stepping around. He finally found the perfect branch; he threw himself on the ground, grab the branch and he rolled back to his feet. He stood up.

"Ah-ah! Now, let's see what you've got, mate!" he deepened his voice and placed himself in an attack position.

Guinevere was walking around with one of her brunette friend when she saw the whole fighting scene. She thought it was very cute – childish, but cute. She decided not to disturb them as they seemed to have fun together alone.

"I don't know what she finds in this guy, really… He's such a reject." the brunette stated.

"They seem happy together, isn't that enough?" Guinevere said very protectively.

"I guess so, though it's weird." she added.

"You're not well placed to talk Stephanie. You do love monsters and special creatures…" she popped her bubble-gum.

"Well, at least, monsters can be cool and people fear them… Artie will never be feared or worshipped." she argued.

Guinevere shrugged, she didn't want to hurt nor Stephanie nor April, so she decided to say nothing.

They continued their little walk without disturbing the two fighting pirates near the river.

Artie had good fighting skills; April had a lot more difficulty than she thought to avoid the fake sword. She managed to stop one of his charging move so their sword stayed stuck together for a while. He smiled. He was, actually, having a lot of fun playing this child game and also knew he was about to win. He thwarted her and managed to disarm her. He brought the fake sword to her neck. "Mighty pirate, eh?" he smirked.

She brought her two arms in the air and moved back slowly. Artie was keeping the same distance from her as she moved, always with the branch upon her neck. She glanced at her left side and continued to move back till her back touched a trunk of a tree. She smirked.

"Aye! It seems I lost, I've got nowhere to go and I got this sword pointed at me. Farewell, dear opponent, I'll die in dignity." she said solemnly.

He lowered the sword and smiled. She took advantage of the situation to grab the trunk with her arms still her back on the tree to give her the swing she needed to raised her legs from the ground and push him with her feet. Artie who has been caught totally off guard fell hard on the ground. She placed herself upon him, tucking his arms and legs to the ground.

"If you ever meet a real pirate and you get into troubles…remember the legs attack, it may help you!" she giggled with her real voice.

"You cheated!" he said faking to be outraged.

He then noticed the awkward position they were in. He sensed some butterfly in his stomach and blushed furiously. April approached her face to his ear, their face was now less then two inches away. He gasped.

"Pirates will always cheat. That's why they always win, unless you cheat too. You might have a chance." she whispered and distanced her face from his.

'_Her eyes… they are green._' He finally discovered. '_Pale green eyes. I love the way her face look so serene, so innocent, like a child that didn't noticed yet that sometimes life can be mean.'_ he thought as he looked at her.

They stayed there, still, for a moment. April pupil started shaking and Artie mouth was slightly opened. He wanted badly to kiss her, here, near this river, lying on the grass. The moment would've been perfect. They were alone, the weather was nice and they had a wonderful day. April shocked her head, went back to reality and stood up. She dusted off her clothes to remove the grass that stuck on her. Artie did the same.

"It was…fun." April decided to say after a long moment of silence.

"Yeah, it was… Thanks." he said shyly.

"Nothing." she barely whispered. "Well…" she regained her hoarse voice. "The night is still young and I've still got some battles to do and some girls to meet. Sleep well, my friend!" she bowed and winked.

"Girls to meet, eh?" he raised an eyebrow.

"What? A pirate got some need!" she said with her real voice and laughed.

She started to approach him slowly, hesitated on the way and, when she was near enough, she hugged him. Arthur froze in shock, his arms stayed on his side. She moved back after a moment.

"G'night." she whispered.

April began her way back to the dormitory.

"Goodnight to you too." he finally said, but she was already too far to hear him.

'_Well, it's time for a cold, very cold shower._' he thought as he replaced his pants.

---

April arrived in her bedroom and laid her back on the door she had closed behind her. She sighed dreamingly. '_I hugged him! Hugged him!_' she kept repeating in her head.

"What is this simpleton smile for?" asked Brian who stopped his reading.

"Nothing!" she answered quickly. "…Just, a funny thing I saw outside." she added to more credible.

"Oh really? What did you see?" his said with an interested tone.

"Erm…" '_Think fast, girl_!' "Hum…" she paused.

Brian waited for an answer now with crossed arms.

"I…saw someone…" she wasn't able to do an excuse in her head, the only thing she heard again and again was that little voice that said : '_You hugged Artie! You hugged him!'_. "I…don't know." She finished, then slammed her head mentally.

"You don't know what you saw outside… And you think it's funny?" he smirked.

She shook her head. "It isn't really important. Now let's do your drawing. What do you want me to draw?" she tried to change the subject.

Her attempt worked well, he was now so excited to have her drawing that he forgot about the weirdness of her answer.

"I want…a…sorcerer! A very powerful one with a red dragon behind him. I want… I want him to hold a magic sceptre with glowing light around… His robe must be black with gold patterns on the end of the sleeves and at the bottom of the robe. I want wind, the hair of the sorcerer, that must be very long…and white, must flow in the wind. Oh! And the dragon must have is mouth opened and must look very dangerous… For the rest… you can use your imagination."

She raised an eyebrow. "Okay… I'll see what I can do. It might be longer than I thought. Is it okay with you?"

He nodded with exaggeration. "You can take all your time, my…"

She shot him a warning look.

"…My…good friend and wonderful roommate."

"Still weird, but better." she said.

April sat on her bed, lit the candle above her head as it was beginning to be darker outside and started to draw.

* * *

**Author's note :** I've got two personal messages : 

**PaddySnuffles :** (Did I mention I didn't want to fill your inbox :P) : I was damn right for the text editor... It doesn't even take the "www", it writes only "w". And I've made a mistake (shame on me)...it's "thingstodo" and not "thigstodo". It should work now! ;)

**Blueinkminstress :** I really want to answer everybody who has been nice enough to take some of their time to write me a review. So, even if you were anonymous, I'll give you a reply! ;) First, thanks a lot. I'm really happy to see you like my story. For Shrek he will appear in further chapters (maybe in 5 or 10 chapters, I don't really know...we'll see where the story guides us:P), but he'll be there don't worry!


	6. Chapter 6  It itches!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note:** It's kind of an in-between chapter. It doesn't really make the story progress, but it's light and fluffy. Hope you'll like it!

* * *

Two weeks have passed since the arrival of April at the Worcestershire school and she already felt at home. She made friends easily, she was part of the cheerleaders and the teachers loved her, at least almost every teacher loved her. It couldn't be any better. 

Artie and she made their way to the Magic class. They've became closer and closer as the days went by. They were almost always together, but April really wanted to be friend with some girls too like Guinevere, so she tried to split her time the best as she could. It was a little hard for her because she just felt so good when she was with Artie and she couldn't help but wanting to be with him.

They took their seat and continued their little conversation while they were waiting the arrival of Merlin. Guinevere turned on her chair to look at the two.

"Hey! Pssst!" she said not too loudly.

They continued their talking without even noticing her. She frowned.

"Hey, the lovers I'm talking to ya!" she said with a sarcastic smile.

They quickly turned to her, recognising to who Guinevere destined this call and then each of them wanted to slam their head on their desk as they noticed of how weird this must have looked.  
"We're not lovers Guinevere." retorted April.

"Really? I wonder why I only got your attention this way though." she smirked.

April blushed furiously. "I-I knew this type of call could only come from you, you're so predictable." she stuttered.

"So you are." she smiled knowingly. "By the way, I just wanted to make you remember we have a practice tonight at six."

"Yeah, I didn't forget." she nodded.

At this moment, Merlin arrived and Guinevere, as every other student in the class, placed herself correctly on her chair.

"Hello my dear students." said Merlin happily. "I'll begin this class with a good news!"

The students stayed silently on their chair, waiting for the good news to come out.

"In two weeks, we'll have a Halloween party and I'm gonna be the one who organize it!" he added cheerfully.

All the students began to talk in the class, very excited. It would be the first year since a long time they would have a Halloween party. Some of them were already talking of their costumes; others were already searching for a partner for the night. There was a lot of fuss in the class. Merlin knew it wouldn't take too long before all the school learns the news even if he would only put the posters around noon.

He laughed to see all his students so happy to have this special night back. "Well, hush now! I'm very happy to see the news please you, but we've got some work to do!" he grinned. "Now, please open your book at page 676."

Everyone stopped to talk and we could hear some growling. The students were a lot more interested to talk about the party they would have in two weeks than to follow their lessons.

---

Artie was very happy to have read more than asked in the manual because he wasn't able to listen to any words of what Merlin was saying. '_This happens a lot since two weeks…' _thought Artie. At least, his note wasn't suffering from his mind absence in the class. He just had to study harder to keep up his good grades. '_A lot more, in fact…_' he sighed.

April tilted her head and looked at him concerned, but seeing he didn't looked back at her, she decided to return her attention to the teacher.

'_This is the best occasion you can have…You could dance with her, touch her, sense her body close to you…' _he sighed again._ 'But I'm too afraid to ask…what if she only thinks of me as a friend? What if she refuses and it ruins this all... If I can't have her…at least, I don't wanna lose her friendship. Argh! Dammit… I think too much… I should just ask. We'll see then.' _

He glanced at her and saw she was looking at him too. He turned back his face, looking at his desk, blushing. '_Nice going! You'll do well if you're not even able to look at her in the eyes…_'

He then saw a little hand pass quickly on his desk; it dropped a little piece of paper and it disappeared. He turned his face to see the owner of the little hand, only to see April smiling warmly and doing a look with her face which meant to open the little piece of paper. He turned his face to the front of the class, Merlin was writing on the board, his back in front of the students. He took that chance to unfold the little paper. His hands were shaking. '_What can this be…?_'

He gapped and felt the butterfly flew in his stomach again. The little message was saying: "_Hi Artie, I know it's not very proper for a girl to ask a boy to an occasion like this… but I really want to go with you. So… Will you do me the honour to go with me at the Halloween party?_". He read the message twice, not believing the content of the message. She did want to spend this evening with him. He couldn't help but jump everywhere in his head – as he couldn't do it in real life.

---

She looked at him, reading the message and saw his eyes opening more and more as he read it. '_This could be good…or bad._' He stayed still for a moment. She waited eagerly for his answer and dreaded it a little. '_What if he say no… This would be awful._' He turned to looked at her. She gulped. This was the crucial moment.

---

He looked at her, surprised, his eyes were shaking of happiness and he finished by nodding with a shy smile that he had to control with his entire mind to not become the biggest grin ever.

---

'_He nodded! He nodded!_' she repeated happily in her head. She returned back the smile.

"Well students, that's gonna be enough for today. Your homework will be to practice the silence spell I taught you today and you'll have to show me if you can do it next week, it will value for five percent of the session. Now, I have one more thing to say before you go. I need some volunteer to help me organizing the little party. Is someone willing to help me?"

He waited for a couple of seconds and no one raised their hand. Finally, Brian decided to raise his hand.

"Thanks Brian! It's nice of you. Any other volunteer?"

Jason raised his hand too, to follow his friend.

"Wonderful! Anyone else?"

Everyone looked at each other and no one volunteered.

"Well, I'll do my best with the help of these two, to please you the most. You can go now!" he smiled.

April stood up and opened her mouth to talk to Artie, but someone grabbed her by the arm and took her away from him. She looked behind her only to see Guinevere.

"Isn't it exciting? This whole Halloween party affair?" she squealed excitedly.

"Yeah it is!" she grinned and made a goodbye sign with her hand to Artie.

"We have to think of our costumes! What will you wear?" she asked still her arms in the one of her friend.

"…I don't know, didn't really thought about it. And you?"

"Oh! I thought about it during all the class and I had a wonderful idea! I had an idea for you too, if you need any suggestions!"

She laughed. "It doesn't surprise me, I don't know why…" she rolled her eyes. "So what you've got on your mind?"

"Well, I wanna be dressed as a siren!"

"Oh! That's a wonderful idea Guinevere! You have the perfect hair to do a dashing siren! Lancelot will bite his hand I swear on this!"

She smiled. "Thanks April! Do you wanna know the idea I've had for you?"

"Sure! Go ahead!"

"Why not a beautiful princess?"

She laughed. "I do not fit in the role. But it's nice of you to think I could be a princess."

"Well that's what Halloween is made for! Being the one we cannot be! Come on, I'll find you a nice dress, I'll arrange your hair, you'll be the most beautiful girl in the whole school…after me, naturally!" she winked.

"I like you modesty!" she poked her friend. "But, well, I'm in, for the princess thing. That would be great."

Guinevere clapped her hands very quickly in utter joy. "Great! And Artie could be your prince!" she smirked.

"H-How…do you know…we are going…?" she paused and looked at her friend laughing. "You are unbelievable! You haven't listened to the class, have you?"

She shook her head and grinned. "Nor did you."

April gapped. "You've got me on this one." she blushed.

She grinned triumphantly. "I'll bet you'll be together after this party." she said talking of April and Artie.

"We're not."

"You'll be."

"Not."

"Be!"

"Not!"

"Oh well, we'll stop that before being late to our Arithmancy class."

"I won!" April raised her two arms with her fists closed.

"You didn't"

"Did."

"Didn't!"

"Did!"

"Be!"

"…Be?" she frowned confused.

"Ahah! Gotcha! Now, _I_ won. You said 'be'." Guinevere grinned deviously.

"Real funny…" she stuck out her tongue.

---

On his side, Arthur made his way to his Astronomy class, light-headed and with a simpleton smile. He felt as if he was walking on clouds. He sat on his chair and waited for the lesson to begin, though his mind wandered somewhere else than in his class. _'I've got to find my costume…but what will I wear? It's not as if I had a lot of money to invest in that…_' After some moments of thinking he had the perfect idea. '_That would be so great, I'm sure she'll just love that!_' He grinned and decided to listen to the class this time.

When it finished, he made his way to his physical education class. He walked as fast as he could so he could see her more. He entered the changing room, opened his locker and took his uniform. He went to a cabin and changed himself. He learned, as the years have passed, that it was better if no one see him changing himself, because he suffered less from the harassment of the other boys. All the possible tricks it is possible to have in a changing room, he did have it. For example, one day, Lancelot and his friends took his clothes away as he was taking his shower, so he had to wait for the caretaker to come and give him some clothes as he couldn't really walk naked in the school… Since then, he only took showers in his dorm.

He put his clothes in the locker and went to the jousting field. He noticed that April was already there, practicing her cheerleader moves with the other girls.

He scratched his arm and smiled at the sight of her.

---

April was warming her muscles with some easy moves when she saw Artie come out of the boy's changing room. She waved at him and saw him smiling. She turned to talk to Guinevere but instead she met face to face with her educational teacher. She startled a little.

"H-hi Mr. Daecher."

"Hi, Mrs. Grey. Did I tell you how much you look good in your dress?" he smirked.

"Yes, sir. I'm afraid you did tell me."

"I repeat my statements, then." he walked away very proud of himself.

"You did tell me, at least, twice a week since I lost that damn competition, you bastard." she muttered bitterly.

She looked at herself and couldn't helped but being ashamed of what she looked like with that stupid dress.

"Hey sweetie, I was wondering if you've almost finished our new costumes."

"Yeah, yeah. Almost. I've got only a thing or two to arrange before showing it to all of you." she stated without emotion. Then an idea struck her mind: _the costumes._ The teacher would have no choice but let them practice in their new costumes, so she would not be obligated to wear that thing anymore. '_You're a genius!_' She grinned as she complimented herself.

"April…What's on your mind?"

She turned her face to look at her friend still with her grin on her face. "Nothing really important. You'll have the design of your costume finished tonight for the practice, I swear!"

---

"COME ON EVERYBODY, I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!" shout the teacher to group together all his students so he could begin his class.

Artie approached the teacher and scratched his back with difficulty. He sensed someone scrubbed it; he jolted a little at the touch of the person but knew immediately who could be so nice with him, so he relaxed himself.

"Thanks… It's better now."

"Nothing." April smiled.

Artie began scratching his torso and his neck. "That itches everywhere! Argh!"

April frowned. "Does…it happen often?"

"No-Not really. In fact, it never happened before." he scratched his leg.

"I see…" she looked at the other students to see if anyone was holding his laughter.

"I-can't-stand-it." he scratched himself everywhere.

Now everyone was looking at him and laughing. The teacher rolled his eyes.

"What's happening now, Arthur?"

"I think someone put some itching powder in Artie's clothes." guessed April.

"Have I talked to you Mrs. Grey? Or maybe you have changed your name?" he snarled.

April took a long breath to calm herself. "No…sir." she said trough her teeth.

"Well, Artie…I'm waiting…" he tapped his fingers on his crossed arms.

"I…She may be right." he continued scratching now more violently to everywhere it itched him.

"Easy answer now that she found it for you, eh?" he smirked. "Stop doing that or you're gonna expulsed from my class. Have I made myself clear?" he said hoarsely.

"Y-Yeah…" he stopped scratching himself, but his face showed a lot of despair.

The teacher kept his gaze upon him for all his instructions and today he took all his time to explain well what they would do during the class. He smiled deviously at the sight of Artie having a hard time. April glared at her teacher and gave a concerned look to Artie.

"Dammit!" he swore before taking off his shirt and scratching his torso and back with vigour. He was covered of red marks because of all his rubbing.

The boys were laughing out loud and the girls stuck out their tongue in disgust.

"Eww, I'll not be able to sleep tonight!" said one of them.

Artie was about to become mad. Even how hard he would scratch himself, the itching sensation wouldn't go away.

"Arthur Pendragon! Out of my class, now!" the teacher shout angrily though April knew it was all fake and that he only waited for Artie to give up. 

A hurt look appeared on his face. He took his shirt on the ground, still scratching himself and began his way out of the jousting field.

---

April decided to go with him.

"What do you think you are doing, miss?"

"I'm giving Artie some support; it looks like I'm the only one who got a heart here!"

"You're expulsed of my class too, Mrs. Grey!" he shouted at her.

"FINE!" she shout back as she put her two closed fists on her side angrily.

She followed Arthur to his chamber and waited on his bed as he prepared himself to take a shower.

"You know, you really shouldn't get in trouble because of me, it's the second time already since you arrived." he said trough the bathroom door.

"Normally, I don't have any problem with authority…but him… He just takes advantage of his superiority to make the one he dislikes suffer. I just can't stand him. I think we should talk to the principal about his behaviour…"

"You're sure 'bout that?"

"Yeah, he must pay for what he had done to you. For me, I don't really care, I mean I can cope with that…but you. I think you've got already enough on your shoulders."

"I can take care of myself too, y'know." he said with a shy tone.

She laughed. "I know, silly. I just think you need someone to support you. Two people talking against a teacher is better than only one person… isn't it? Plus, we have the nurse on our side!"

"If you say so…Well, I'm in now, I might not be able to hear you anymore." he said talking of the shower.

She laid on his bed, waiting. She blushed at the thought of him naked in the shower. '_Stop thinking of that! Ok, thinks of something you dislike…Hum…Mr. Daecher! Grrr!_' . Her solution worked…for about a minute. The sound of the water dripping was always bringing her back to the '_Artie in the shower_' thought. She shook her head. She turned in his bed so she was now lying on her left side. '_Huuum, his pillow smells good..._' She blinked. '_Ugh! Get a grip, girl!_' She stood up and began to look around. She found a little picture upon his cupboard. It was a family picture, Artie seemed to have around five in this picture, he was with his mother and father. His mother seemed to be a loveable woman and she was very beautiful. His father, on the contrary, seemed to be a harsh man, very strict.

A door behind her opened. She jolted and turned to look at Artie who had nothing more but a wrapped towel around his waist. He blushed.

"I…forgot to bring some clean clothes with me…" he said as he pointed the cupboard.

"Oh…" she gazed at him dreamingly. '_Your legs are shaking…Sit girl, sit!_' She let herself fall in a sitting position on the bed and looked at him opening his drawer to take some clothes. "_Wet hair…Only a towel…I could slip and accidentally tear it off."_ She smiled deviously and shook her head.

"I-I'll be back." he rushed to the bathroom.

---

He closed the door behind him and let his back slide till he touched the floor. He slammed his head in his hand. '_Now, you look pretty clever._' He sighed and dressed himself; he wrapped the infested clothes in a towel and dropped it in his basket of dirty linen.

He went out of the bathroom and sat beside April. The stayed there silent for some time. Arthur broke the silence.

"How…What will you wear for the Halloween party?"

"Guinevere wanted me to be a princess…she'll help me doing my costume…and you?" she whispered.

"It's a surprise!" he grinned.

She gapped. "Not fair!" she said more loudly.

"I know." he smiled.

She pouted. "Tell me! Please! Pretty please!"

"Nope."

She frowned. "Well, you give me no choice." She took the pillow of Artie and began hitting him with it.

He tried desperately to stop the attack but he couldn't stop all of them. He stood up and tried to catch the pillow. April was still sitting on the bed hitting in, now more around his waist. He stretched his arms, took the pillow and fell on April as he had lost his balance.

"We do finish often in that position…" he said shyly.

"Isn't it?" she laughed nervously.

The butterflies in his stomach reappeared as he felt the need to kiss her. He approached his face, so did April. The still wet hairs of Artie fell on April face. Their faces were inches away and they could feel the heavy breath they had because of their excitement, they looked at each others eyes waiting for an approval for what they were going to do. April smiled and Artie approached even more, their lips were now barely touching. Artie felt a light jolt trough his body.

"What on heart…!" said Jason with a disbelief tone.

They stood up quickly as if nothing happened, the both of them blushing furiously.

"When the principal will know that two students left a class for cuddling… He will be pleased." he smirked.

'_Shit_.' Artie swore mentally and forced a hypocrite smile on his face.

"It's not what you think really, Jason!" April laughed. "Artie's only a good friend of mine; you just arrived in a awkward moment. In fact, we were fighting and Artie fell on me." She half-lied.

He thought for a moment. "I'll do as if nothing happened, but you owe me one. Both of you." he pointed-out.

The two of them nodded. They were not too please with the situation but it was better than being sold to the principal.

* * *

**Author's note:** I've got two personal messages… 

**Bruce :** Tu es un homme mort! ;)

**Lola :** Happy to see you liked it. Hope you liked that chapter too. :)


	7. Chapter 7  The plan

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note:** I would like to say a special thanks to all of you who wrote me a review, I really appreciate them and it gives me a reason to continue writing my story. :)

* * *

Already one week has passed since the little incident that almost occurred between April and Arthur. Since then, they've done as if nothing has happened, coming back to the old "only-friendship" habit. 

Naturally, Jason told Brian what he'd seen in his room and it didn't really pleased him.

"Maybe we shouldn't have put itching powder in his clothes, isn't it? If only we knew it would end like this… I'll have to start up my plan more quickly than planned, then."

"Your plan?" asked Jason puzzled.

"Yeah, you do remember I told you that the fact she doesn't love me is only a temporary state."

Jason nodded.

"I'll need some help, but it'll work." he smiled deviously.

"What do you want to do…?"

"Well, have you heard about the strange disappearance of the fairy godmother one month ago?"

"Yeah, I remember seeing something like that in the newspaper… but how can this helps you?" he added more puzzled.

"I'm coming to it. We'll since then her potion factory is bankrupt. They sold their potions at really cheap price, to at least, get some money before it close definitely."

The eyes of Jason widened as he understood what his friend wanted to do. "You…bought a potion?"

His friend motioned with his hand to stay quiet and smirked. He opened one of his drawers and took out a little steel box with a lock on it. He removed his necklace that had a key attached to it and unlocked the box. He opened the cover with caution and turned it to Jason so he could see its content well.

"…Love potion?" Jason read the sticker on the little bottle.

"Yeah, I just have to put this in her drink, kiss her and she'll be all mine! The first kiss might be a little harder…I may have a slap of something like that, but what I will get next is worth the pain."

"Is it…you know…moral…to do this?" he asked not sure if it was the good way to win her heart.

"And since when do you have the right to judge the decision of your King?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry…Brian."

"Already forgotten." he smiled and waved his left hand to motion that it didn't disturb him.

Then, the eyes of Brian widened. "Why I haven't thought of that before! I'm a genius!" he said excitedly.

His friend gave him a quizzical look.

"The Halloween party! It would be the best time ever!" Brian added.

"She's surely going with Artie, though. It would be harder to approach her."

"It's only a detail that we'll settle right away. They do have a favour to give you, each of them you said, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" he wasn't sure he liked where the conversation was going to.

"Well, just ask April to go with me at the Halloween party and ask Artie not to show even the tip of his nose during the celebration."

"…But, it's my favours…" he said sheepishly.

"And I'm your King, so you must follow my orders."

"Ok…" he added sadly. "I'm going to do it, but what if they don't want to?"

"Just make them remember that we've caught them cuddling in your room during a class and that we can always tell everything to the director."

Jason nodded unsurely.

---

Later that day, April was in her room changing herself in her new cheerleader clothes. Her new design was quickly accepted. They now wore a short yellow skirt with short yellow woman boxers under, a green long-sleeves vest that was skin-tight with the branding of the school on their back. She just loved that uniform, it's was not too boyish and yet it was comfortable. She was not the only one who loved that change, every other girls of the team were happy to move more easily in their costumes.

She turned the knuckle of her room to go to the jousting field when the door flew open before she had time to do it. She gasped of surprise.

"Oh, it's only you Brian!" she brought a hand to her heart, breathing hard. "I though this was Artie! We're supposed to meet at the jousting field before my practice! I thought that maybe he took the initiative to come to my room."

'_To snuggle together again, eh?_' he thought furiously. "Ain't seen him." he said hiding his emotion.

"Kay! I'm going now; I'll be back around nine!"

"Its late." he frowned.

"Not that much…dad!" she winked and waved goodbye.

He looked at her walking down the hallway, her hips moving as she took each step. He was hypnotized by the movement. '_She does have a nice butt!_' he though perversely.

---

Artie went to see April at her practice that evening; he took advantage of this time to do his work meanwhile. When he wanted to stop, he took little breaks to look at her and did as if she cheered for him; it gave him the motivation to continue his work. He really liked to look at her doing her practice, he loved to see her smiling and laughing with her friends, to see her dancing gracefully – she was actually great in dancing when she did know the choreography. Sometimes, when he was lucky enough, their gaze met and they exchanged a smile. That would be the biggest motivation he could have for returning into his homework.

"I'm finished!" she said as she climbed the big stairs of the stage.

He looked-up from his book. "Already? It was quick tonight!" he said surprised.

"We're getting better. We'll be soon ready for the competition!" she smiled as she waved her two pom-poms.

He laughed. "So! What do we do tonight?" he asked per habit.

"I don't really know…" she shrugged as she sat beside him.

"What about a walk?"

"Nice! Maybe we'll find something to do while walking!" she took her two pom-poms in one hand and stood up.

They went out of the jousting field and walked together near the river.

"This is my favourite place here." he said lowly.

"Really? I love that place too, it's so quiet. We can hear the birds here and the river flow. It's so relaxing."

"I think the same." he smiled.

April sat on the shore, took off her green ballerina shoes and touched with the tip of her toe the water.

"Ouh! It's cold!" she exclaimed as she moved away her feet from the water.

Artie joined her near the river and tried himself too. He thought it was very cold, but he kept is feet into the water by pride. He laughed. "It's so damn cold! My feet are freezing!"

"Well, took them out, you silly!" she laughed at him.

"Yeah…maybe you're right." he did as she said. '_What if I…_' he smirked.

"Why…are you looking at me like that…I don't like it." she laughed nervously. "Stop it! I mean it! What's on your mind?"

"Nothing." he stopped looking at her.

She frowned. "You're strange tonight, you know that?" she returned her attention to the river, glanced at him for a second but before she knew she was pushed into the river.

When she came out of the river, she was glaring at him. "You-are-SO-dead!" she pointed her index to him, throwing several droplet of water as she moved.

He laughed loudly. She went out of the river and started running after Artie. He taunted her a couple of time by fainting in which way he would run to. He decided to throw himself into the river before she did it.

He gasped as he took some air when his head came out of the water. '_The water is indeed real cold!_' he noticed.

"I'm freezing now!" she scolded as she folded her arms together to get some warmth. "Thanks to you!" she stuck out her tongue.

"You'll dry yourself in your room, now come on, join me in the river, it's not so cold when our body get used to it!"

She hesitated a moment, then unfolded her arms and curled up to get into the water. Artie, who thought it was too long, decided to help his friend, he took her two arms and pulled her back into the river.

"Aaaagh! So cold!" she wrapped her arms again.

"You have to move if you want to warm yourself." He said as he swam around her.

She splashed some water on him. "I would be warm if you hadn't thrown me in here!" she pouted.

He answered by another splash.

She gapped. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Having some fun!" he smirked.

"Really?" she splashed some water on him again.

They continued battling in the water like that for about five minutes when April asked to stop for regaining her breath.

"Are you still cold?" he tilted his head.

"No, I'm not." she muttered.

"What? I haven't heard what you said." he lied.

"You did hear!"

"Yeah, I did." he laughed.

They stayed their silently for a minute.

"You're…cute…like this, y'know?"

His eyes widened. "Cute…?" he blushed.

April slammed her head mentally. '_Why did I say that?_' "Actually…yeah."

He looked down. "You're not bad either…I mean…You're great. Erm."

"Not bad? It's the worst compliment I've ever had!" she laughed.

He blushed. "No it's not what I meant…"

She stood still, waiting eagerly for an answer.

He looked up, opened his mouth and he frowned as he looked at her. "You're freezing! Your lips are all blue….and you're shivering! Come on, we'll go back to our dormitory before you suffer of hypothermia. Though, I would not refuse to warm you."

She gapped. "You pervert!" she slapped him on the shoulders and he protected himself.

He started to run out of the river, splashing some water on April sometimes. When the two of them were out, they made their way to the dormitory always continuing to tease each other. Artie opened the door of his room while April pushed him tauntingly because he had mocked her, he walked into his bathroom and handed her a towel.

"Here, take this, before you die of coldness!"

"Thank you." she murmured.

They were so much in their own world; they didn't even notice that Jason was in the bedroom, looking at them. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

The two of them jumped at the sound that Jason made.

'_Damn Jason, always there when he shouldn't…_' thought Artie.

"Time for the payback, you two."

"The payback..?" asked April nervously.

"Yeah, you remember the time I did found you two in the bed ––"

"Y-Yeah! We do remember." Artie cut his sentence because he didn't want to bring this back, it was already rather annoying.

"Well, you do owe me a favour." he reminded.

Artie sighed. "Ok, so what is it?" he spat.

Jason took a deep breath. He didn't like this at all. "April…You have to go to the Halloween party with Brian and… Artie, we demand you to stay in your room during all the night, you cannot take part of the celebration."

Arthur blinked twice. "I-It's UNFAIR!" Arthur shouted. "H-How can you do this! I haven't done anything to you! Why are you harassing me?" he finished with his face stretched in hatred feelings.

"H-How dare you? I will NEVER go to the Halloween party with Brian! NEVER! I promised to Artie and I'm going with him!" she shouted too.

"You do as you want… If you don't want to accept my orders, I'll tell everything to the director." Jason shrugged. '_Hope it'll work…_' he prayed.

Some tears began running down April's face. '_The obsession of Brian is no fun now._' She was looking at Jason angrily, her face was all red as she fumed of rage, her fists were closed hardly and her shoulders were moving up at each big breath she took. She bowed her head.

"I-I really hate you…" she took a deep breath. "I'm going with Brian to the Halloween party."

"N-No! Don't do this!" Artie tried to stop her.

"Then what? Everyone from the class knows we went out before – as we've been expulsed, doesn't that look strange? Don't you think that Mr. Daecher wouldn't take advantage of the situation telling everyone I did it on purpose to be alone with you? Don't you think he wouldn't say it was all a big scenery? He didn't even believe that someone put itching powder in your clothes…how would he believe the entire story… No, Artie. He might have the director on his side and we can't take that chance." she quickly said, taking no pause between each sentence.

"I don't care!" he took her hands with his own. "I wanna go with you, April." Arthur wiped off the tear that was running down her cheek.

"I…want too Arthur…but do understand that it's not better he we get expulsed from the school!" she looked at him desperately. "I'm sorry. I prefer missing one evening with you than the whole year." she shook her head as she finished. "I'm leaving now…to my room." She turned to Jason. "And do tell your stupid friend that I will not talk to him ever again, not even at the party. I'll be with him… that is all." She turned away from both men and returned to her room, shaking.

* * *

**Author's note: **Ahah! I know it's a mean way to finish a chapter...but well! Hope you're not too mad at me! ;) 


	8. Chapter 8  The Halloween party

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note:** Phew... the longest till now! Another chapter I couldn't really cut in two parts.

* * *

That day, the Halloween day, Artie knew exactly what he had to do. He thought about it for an entire week, analysing every aspect of the problem and he always came with the same solution. It was his only chance. 

He walked in the hallways of the dormitory and stopped in front of a door. He took a deep breath and was about to knock on it when it flew open. He lost a little his balance but manage to regain it in the end. The person in front of him startled, not expecting his visit.

Artie cleared his throat and looked at the person in the eyes. "I-I need your help."

The person raised an eyebrow and showed him to enter her room with a sign of her head. He entered the room unsurely, the person looked at the two sides of the hallway to be sure that no one had seen them and closed the door of her room.

---

Later that day, April made her way to her friend room without any enthusiasm. She dread the Halloween night since the day Jason told her she had to go with Brian and now the fatal day has come. She wished she could go back in time, but it was just flowing away and really too fast. She sighed. 'It's only one night, it's not that bad. In only a few hours, this will all be finished and will remain only a bad dream.' she tried to convince herself.

She knocked on the door of Guinevere room.

"W-Who is it?" asked Guinevere.

"April!"

"…Coming!" she heard her friend shout.

She heard a loud thud as a door closed inside her room and some tumbling sound. She waited at least two minutes in front of the closed door before her friend opened it. "

That was quite long…what were you doing?" she asked.

"Cleaning up a little my mess!" she laughed while taking deep breath.

"You weren't obligated to rush yourself like that! You look exhausted! Plus, normally you don't mind when there's a mess in your room!"

"I…just wanted everything to be clean for the 'April to princess' transformation!"

April rolled her eyes. "I don't know why you're still so eager to costume me when you know I've got no reason to wanting to go there anymore…"

"Hey! Don't wanna hear you whining! You gonna have fun tonight Artie or not. Have I made myself clear?"

April shrugged and forced a smile. "Yeah…sure."

"Now come on! Let me have some fun on you!" she grinned with all her teeth.

April entered her room dragging her feet on the floor.

Guinevere started by asking her to sit on the chair between the two beds.

"I see you're already all set." April said as she looked on her bed. "Don't know where you did your little cleaning though. It's pretty messy! As usual!" she laughed.

"Ahah! Real funny. You're gonna pay right now for that." she took out a little tweezers of her cosmetic case. She laughed evilly.

"Erm…What do you want to do with that?" she asked as she pointed the torture instrument.

"I want to curve a little more your eyebrows." she stated.

"M-My eyebrows are fine, thank you!" she stuttered.

"Your eyebrows are ok but can be better. Your line is too straight a little curve wouldn't hurt!"

"Wouldn't hurt, wouldn't hurt…" she mumbled. "Aaaargh! Geez, that hurts!" she shouted as her friend began her job.

After fifteen minutes of fighting, Guinevere managed to finish her two lines.

"You look beautiful!" Guinevere clapped her hand in joy at the sight of her good work. "Look!" she handed her a little mirror.

April looked herself into the little mirror. "I must say, it's not bad… But that hurts so much…"

"Now, now… Don't act like a little baby, will you? You are just great!"

"Does the red spots will go away before tonight…?"

"Yeah, it will disappear in about ten minutes or so." she smiled. "And if it do not… you should be happy, you will be less beautiful for Brian!"

"You know how to comfort someone Gwen…" she said sarcastically.

"I know! It's one of my specialities!" she grinned.

April put her face in her hand while shaking her head.

"Now, let's put this dress before making you up and putting you on! You'll see the dress is…wonderful!" she made a sign to her friend to wait as she went to her wardrobe. "I'm going to the wardrobe, now!" she said a little louder.

"…I notice…Why are you telling me this?"

"Erm… I didn't really talk to you…but to myself. It happens… sometimes." She made a small smile.

"Oh…It's the first time I see you talking to yourself… You've… got a lot of surprise!" she laughed uneasily.

April stayed still, sitting on her chair, looking everywhere in the room. Then something got her attention, something exceeding below her bed. April bowed her head a little to look better at what was exceeding, always in her sitting position.

"There it is!" said excitedly Guinevere as she turned back to her friend.

April straighten up in her chair when she heard Guinevere talking to her again. 'Damn…Hadn't time to see it!' Then, when she saw the dress, she couldn't say a word. She stood there gapping.

"Oh…Guinevere… The dress is wonderful! What don't you wear it yourself? I mean… it's too…expensive to lend it to a new friend…"

"Too expensive? I don't care! I got a lot of money. Well… My parents do. I wanna be a mermaid, so I'm gonna be a mermaid and you, you're gonna be a dashing princess." she winked. "I've got some things to take in the bathroom for your make-up. I come back in a few!"

April nodded and Guinevere went to her bathroom.

April took the dress, looked at it and smiled. 'At least I'm gonna be beautiful tonight.' she thought happily as she started humming. She put back the dress on the bed and started to undress herself. She began by taking off her light blue vest, she took off her light black skirt that arrived to her knees and she brought her arms behind her to remove her bra when she heard a loud noise coming from the wardrobe.

"AAAH!" she shouted as she turned to the sound, hiding herself.

Guinevere went out of the bathroom and looked at her friend who seemed really upset.

"What's going on here? And what are you doing in underwear?!"

"I-I was going to put the dress, b-but then I heard a sound from the wardrobe…" she stuttered.

Guinevere slammed her head mentally and went in front of her wardrobe. She forced a smile. "Erm… Remember I told you I cleaned up my room before you came in?"

"Y-Yeah…"

Guinevere took a deep breath. "I…admit it. I put everything in my wardrobe!" she laughed. "All the stuff must have fallen on the floor." she finished as she hit hard the door of her wardrobe.

"Oh… I guess… I've been afraid for nothing."

"At least, nothing too…bad." she finished as she tried to suppressed her giggles.

"Don't laugh at me! It's not funny!"

"You have no idea how it is funny! Now…go finished changing yourself in the bathroom, would you?"

April nodded and took the dress with her into the bathroom.

The rest of the afternoon went by without any accident or strange situations. Guinevere finished her job on April and began to put her costume too. April was in a sitting position on her bed; her back leaned of a wall, drawing her mermaid princess as she arranged a few details of her costume.

"I…can't breathe with that." April realized after a couple of minutes and she decided to stand up.

"That's the big disadvantage of wearing a corset… But… It does a wonderful job!"

---

Artie was reading a book on his bed when someone knocked on the door. Jason stood up to see who it was.

"You. Stay there." he ordered Artie.

Artie raised his hands innocently.

Jason opened the door and went all red.

"H-Hi Guinevere. Y-You look beautiful tonight…" he gulped.

"Eww…" Guinevere looked at Artie and then at Jason. "May I talk with you…alone?" she said disgusted, not believing she was doing this.

Jason smiled and barely nodded. He turned to look at Artie and glared at him to warn him he was still keeping an eye on him and closed the door to be alone with Guinevere in the hallway.

"I need your help."

"W-Why?"

"I want Artie to come with me, tonight." she said nonchalantly.

He laughed. "And why would I do that? You're the friend of April. Why would I believe you're didn't plot anything behind us?"

"And you didn't do that to her, did you?" she raised an eyebrow. "Anyway… She's not really my friend, y"know." she popped her bubble-gum.

"You always with her don't take me for a fool." he frowned.

"And who is she always with?" she asked.

"Artie…but why does that concern you?"

Guinevere looked around her and approached Jason so she could whisper in his ear. "Lancelot needs him tonight to…you know…have some fun with him. He would humiliate him in front of everybody during the Halloween party."

"You're not with Lancelot anymore!" he stepped back not believing a word of what she said.

"Not a lot of people know this… but we've never broke up. It was only a big machinery for having April's faith and…it worked." she raised a little her shoulders as she smiled.

"…Really?"

"I'm telling the truth. Why would I lie to you?" she smirked.

"Ok then, you can take him with you… but be sure he suffers a lot!" he dealt.

"I will not deceive you. I promise." she said with sparkles in her eyes. "Now, be very subtle, Artie must not know I'm not on April's side. Understand? You can fake to… lose consciousness? I will do with Artie as if all this was planned and we would go out of the room. Okay?"

He nodded. "That's a great idea!"

Jason opened the door of his room and began walking like a drunk.

"I do not feel well…" he whined. "Artie would you please… bring me some wat–"

He faked to lose consciousness on his bed before he had finished his sentence.

Guinevere smiled. "Now let's go Artie, come with me. All went as planned!"

Artie stood up smiling and left the room first, Guinevere turned back to look at Jason who had now opened his eyes and she winked at him before she closed the door of his room.

---

'What's taking her so long…?' thought April as she looked at the big clock they had in their cafeteria. For the circumstance, Merlin and the few volunteers he managed to have in different class, changed the cafeteria in a wonderful ballroom place. He took advantage of this party to teach the students a few decoration spell.

"Do you like your evening for now…?" asked Brian.

April turned her face to avoid him and stayed silent.

"Erm…do you want a drink? I brought you lemonade!"

April pushed the lemonade away from her and glared at him.

'This is not going too well…' thought Brian.

He sighed. "April… I know what I did suck a lot…"

She nodded, her eyes wide open, with conviction.

"…but, I just didn't know how to be with you. You're always with Artie… and I guess I was a little jealous. I know it's selfish of me, but do understand that no one as every paid attention to me and you were so nice… I guess I wanted more. Now, please don't be mad at me anymore… Drink this lemonade I brought you and go search your Artie… I abandon. I see I'm no match against him." he forced a smile as he offered her the lemonade.

She took a deep breath. "Ok, it's forgotten, but promise you will never do this again! Promise!"

"I-I promise." he lied.

She nodded and took the lemonade. She drank it slowly. "Hum! This lemonade is very good! It tastes a little different…from the lemonade I drank before. Do you know the ingredients?"

"I do know one!" he smiled.

"Really? And what is it?"

"…Lemons!"

April rolled her eyes. "Now you're pretty clever…" and pocked him.

Brian took her little empty cup, put it on a table not too far from them and began preparing him mentally to kiss her. "April, I…" he took her arm and pulled her to him a little.

"Hey April!" someone shouted from the other end of the room.

April turned to see the owner of the voice. "Gwen! You're late! What took you so long?"

"I waited for my cousin."

April looked at the man standing behind her mermaid friend. He had a white mask on his face that was revealing only his jaw, his hair were tighten in a very little ponytail and was all dressed in black. He even had black gloves on his hands. 'Wow… Her cousin is handsome.'

"As Lancelot and I aren't together anymore, I had to find myself another cavalier!" she continued. "Let me present him to you! Mathis here's my friend April, April my cousin Mathis."

"It's an honour to meet such a beauty as you Miss. April." he bowed in front of her and kissed her hand.

She giggled and her face reddened. "I'm flattered. Thank you."

Brian stood there gapping. They were about to ruin his entire plan! He had to try to kiss her anyway!

"April…"

April turned to Brian. "What is it, Brian?" she said dryly.

Brian took her two shoulders, pulled her to him and kissed her firmly on her lips. She pushed him and slapped him hard on his face.

"What are you doing?!" she wiped her mouth in disgust.

He smiled triumphantly. It was only a matter of time before she would fall in love with him. His cheek hurt like hell, but he didn't mind.

Guinevere was, on her side, blocking the way to his fuming cousin so he wouldn't do anything he would regret after the night.

"I wait for an answer? What have passed on your mind? You are dumb or what?"

He kept waiting, with a big smile on his, but soon saw that nothing had changed in her. 'The potion didn't work…?' he thought frightened.

"Urgh! You are so stupid! How can I even think of forgiving you!" she turned her back to him, leaving him alone as she went away with her friend and Mathis.

Then everything went clear. This was all the fault of Mathis! He did kiss her first! On her hand, but still, he kissed her! So now, she was deeply in love with that… fake gentleman. He roared of anger and cast a spell on Mathis.

Meanwhile, a slow dance started and Mathis asked April if she wanted to dance with him, with the approbation of her cousin. He pulled her quickly to the dance floor and the spell of Brian missed them of little.

Sadly, the spell continued his way through the room to hit directly the Magic professor who turned into a bee.

Brian eye's widened as he saw what he did. The bee began flying everywhere in the room very quickly as if it was very afraid.

Some girls noticed the bee and began shouting frightened it would prick them. Lancelot, who wanted to impress the girls, decided to kill the bee with his hands. Brian saw Lancelot beginning to run after the bee and clapping his hands together.

Brian ran to Lancelot. "L-Lancelot! Stop! Don't kill the bee!"

Lancelot rolled his eyes. "I know you were strange… but caring for a bee is really bizarre…." he said, never leaving the bee from his sight.

Lancelot continued running after it.

"No…Lancelot you don't understand! The bee… is a man!"

Lancelot's eyes widened. "You should go to an asylum, you know that?" he laughed and clapped his hands together. "Ahah! Got it!" he shouted triumphantly.

Brian shouted too, but in fear. "I'm not better than dead…" he fell on his knees and looked at the little sluggish bee on the floor. After some seconds, the little bee began to move his wings. The hope on Brian's eyes came back; he raised his two sleeves and cast the antidote spell on the bee.

Merlin was now shaking on the floor, curled up in a small ball. Brian felt pretty uneasy. The other students stop dancing and stood there silent as they looked at their teacher and at Brian on the floor.

Some teachers and the principal rushed to see the fuss and gapped when they saw the scene.

"What happened here?" asked angrily the principal.

"I…saw a spell hitting our teacher Merlin. I wanted to bring him back to his normal form but Lancelot wanted to kill the bee and didn't believe me when I said it was a man… not that I would have believed this either. When Lancelot succeeded hitting the bee – Merlin. I saw that it was still moving and I brought him back to his normal form." he half-lied.

"You did the right thing Brian." said the Principal. "And you Lancelot, you should believe more your stooge." he finished pointing his finger to Lancelot.

Lancelot stood there, shaking. 'I almost killed a man…' he kept repeating in his head, but the real guilty was far more shocked than him. His gaze was locked with the man he admired so much and he could have killed him only because of his jealousy. He felt like an horrible man.

The principal put a knee on the floor and look at Merlin concerned.

"Hey, old friend, how are you feeling?"

Merlin looked at the principal and blinked twice. "I'm a buzzing bee! Bzz-Bzz-Bzz!" he managed to say.

The principal bowed his head and looked at the other teachers. "Bring him to the nursery. Bring Brian and Lancelot with him, they may need a little rest." he stood up. "Now… If anyone knows who might have cast a spell on this man who did everything to please you tonight, let me know it. Or be sure, I'll find it myself." he pointed at every students around him. He sighed. "You can continue your little party, but I hope will remain calm this time…" he warned before he walked away from the room.

---

The school band began to play again their songs, but they soon felt that the students weren't in the mood anymore to continue the party. The singer of the group bitted his lips.

This was really an important night for them, because it was their real first show they were supposed to do for an entire night and, now, it was all ruined.

The singer asked his friends to stop playing with a wave of his hand and cleared his throat. The students turned to look on the stage, wondering why the music had stopped.

"I see you're not in the mood for only dancing anymore, so we're gonna warm a little the atmosphere! I suggest you to do a little singing competition! The winner will win…erm…will win…" he turned to his friends for asking some help.

"…A supper in the restaurant of his choice!" said the trumpeter.

"A supper in the restaurant of his choice!" repeated the singer. "…of his choice?" he turned to his friend with a quizzical look.

His friend nodded fiercely.

"…Of his choice." he finished. "Well…who wants to start?"

Mathis raised his hand. Guinevere looked at him puzzled.

"You sing…?" asked Guinevere.

Mathis nodded. "Yes, my dear cousin, I do sing alone sometimes."

"Oh." her eyes widened in surprise.

"Well, come on, get to the stage and show us what you've got!" invited the singer.

Mathis climbed the little stairs and went to the stage. He turned to look everybody. 'This is my chance to prove them they're all wrong about me.' He looked at April and smile warmly. April sent the smile back. He opened his mouth and began to sing without leaving his gaze from April.

_I've just seen a face,  
I can't forget the time or place  
That we'd just met, she's just the girl for me  
And I want all the world to see we've met  
Hum Hum Hum Humhumhum  
Had it been another day  
I might have looked the other way  
But I had never been aware  
And as it is I dream of her tonight  
Daï laï laï laïlaïlaï_

Guinevere was gapping, she didn't know he sang that well and that a guy like him was hidden behind this mask…

"He does sing well…" said April surprised.

"Yeah, he does…" added Guinevere bewildered.

"And he has such a charming smile…" she drooled dreamingly.

"Ew!" Guinevere said disgusted. "You're really obsessed with him even if he's…" she stopped her sentence for a second. "Even if he's my cousin." she finished laughing nervously.

_Falling, yes I am falling  
And she keeps calling me back again  
I have never known  
The likes of this, I've been alone  
And I have missed things and kept out of sight  
But other girls were never quite like this  
Hum Hum Hum Humhumhum_

"Oh damn! I should go search Artie now that I'm not obligated to stay with Brian! He must think it's pretty boring in his room. I'll go search him."

"No! Stop!" Guinevere grabbed her arm.

"What? I wanted Artie to be with me tonight, now that I got the chance… I'll go search him. You have your cavalier…I need mine!"

"Erm…Wait at least for the end of the singing competition, will you? Plus, I think my cousin loves you!" she winked.

"…You think…?" she walked by to her friend.

"Well, just look how he looks at you. It's pretty obvious!"

She turned to look at Mathis who gave her a dashing flirty smile.

"I see." she smiled back. She shook her head. "It's not fair for Artie. I'll go search him."

"No! Stay here!" she grab the arm of her friend once more. "Come on, my cousin doesn't have fun often. He now gets the chance to be with a nice girl tonight and maybe it will not happen before a long time. You'll be with Artie everyday of this year. Do me this favour, please. Pretty please. As a payback for the dress."

"Because there was a payback?" she raised an eyebrow angrily.

"No, no! It's not what I meant. Please April! For Mathis!" she begged.

April sighed. "Ok! I'll stay." she turned to look at him. "I do this only for you, not for him."

Guinevere smiled.

As April decided to stay, Mathis finished his song with conviction, his two arms raised as a sign of victory. He was smiling a lot, showing all his teeth. He had, for once, accomplished something great in his life and everyone was applauding. For him! Ar...Mathis!

Others students tried to sing too, but no one had caught the attention of the crowd as Mathis. Guinevere and Mathis begged April to try but she refused, saying she sang pretty badly. The winner of the competition was with no contest: Mathis.

He returned onto the stage and the singer asked him to reveal his identity so he could give him the price when he wanted to use it.

"It won't be necessary. I'm from outside the school. I'm Guinevere cousin; you can give the price to her though. Because of her, I had a wonderful night." he smiled at Guinevere and glanced a little at April."

---

Guinevere went changing herself, after the little party, to her room, leaving voluntarily her cousin Mathis with April. The two of them were walking slowly in the little garden of the school.

"You really belong here, in the garden, among the flowers. You're soft, beautiful and you smell very good… It's vanilla perfume isn't it?" Mathis asked.

"Yeah. It is." she blushed.

"And your dress is just astonishing! The light cream color suits you very well."

"Thank you…The song you sang was really nice, by the way…" her cheeks turned a pale shade of pink as she said that and looked at the grass.

"I believe every single line of this song."

She turned to him and blinked. Was he falling in love with her? She thought he was not that bad. In fact, she liked him very much, but there was someone else in her mind…

"Mathis… Now that the party is finished. Do you think… I could see your face? I mean… I really want to know who you are, because I love to recognize the people with whom I get along."

"I…Oh! I forgot I had something to tell my cousin… I-I must go!" he said quickly as he walked away, leaving April among the flowers.

She sat on a little bench, lost in her dreams.

---

Artie made his way to Guinevere room and knock on her door. Guinevere opened the door.

"Ready for the part two of the plan?"

Artie nodded.

The two of them made their way outside the school in some dark places. They could barely see where they put they're feet.

"Here we are." whispered Guinevere. "Now, jump in that thing."

"What I can do for her…" he said as he jumped in a little swamp. "Ugh. That stinks." he began to get out of the swamp.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"I'm…leaving?"

"What about your hair? It will not look natural if your hairs aren't dirty!"

"Oh. You're right. Ugggh. Horrible smell." He lowered his head by behind and dipped his hair in the swamp. "Is it okay, now?"

"Not yet. Your face."

He blinked, but she couldn't see it. "I will not put my face in this!"

Guinevere rolled her eyes. "Well use your hand to put the dirt in strategically places."

He sighed and did as demanded. After having dirtied his face he made his way out of the swamp.

When he entered his chamber, Jason faked to be surprise of his state.

"What happened to you?" his said with wide eyes.

"…Lancelot did this to me…" he barely whispered. " He went here in the chamber, took me out against my will and pushed me into the swamp near the school…" he bowed he head. "Now, I stink…"

Jason laughed happily and returned back to his reading.

'Piece of cake.' thought Artie.

---

When April came back to her room, she saw that Brian wasn't there yet. 'He must still be in the nursery…' she deducted.

She lightened up some candles so she could see where she was walking. She began to take off her dress when she noticed that one drawer of the cupboard of Brian was still opened.

She decided to close it, by principle. She began closing the drawer when she saw a small empty bottle left in a corner. She frowned to help her focus on what was written on it.

'…Love potion? And the bottle is empty…? Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! He wouldn't have done that, would he?'

She rushed to her potion manual, went to the index and search for the Love potion. 'Love…Love…Love potion! Got it!' She flipped the pages till she arrived to the one the index indicated. Her hands were shaking as it followed the lines in the book. Her eyes widened when she saw "A simple kiss, after drinking the potion, will make the person immediately fall in love with the one who gave it"

"You son of a bitch! You're gonna pay for this!" She swore out loud.

Then suddenly, all went clear in her head. Why Brian insisted her to drink the lemonade, how he brutally kissed her without her acknowledgement and how he waited like a dumb for a change of reaction from her side. '…But wait… I'm not in love with him… and he did kiss me…'

Then, she had another flash. Mathis! Guinevere's cousin! He kissed her first! What was strange though is that she wasn't in love with him either. She did thought he was handsome, for what she saw of him, but not more than that. 'I only love one and unique guy…' she smiled dreamingly.

'The potion might have expired!' she shrugged and closed her potion book.

---

After taking a good shower, Artie went to bed. He couldn't get off of his mind a thing that happened that afternoon.

-- flashback --

"I-I need your help." Artie stuttered.

Guinevere showed him to enter the room, looked if no one had seen them and closed the door.

Artie explain what he had in mind and why he needed her help. He begged her on his knees to help him, exaggerating a little how he felt. It always worked, and it did too this time.

Guinevere prepared him a costume for the night. She lend him a white mask, tight his hair into a ponytail and put him a little make-up to refine his features.

Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door.

"W-Who is it?" asked Guinevere.

"April!" she answered.

"Damn…" she swore quietly. "You! Come here." she said talking to Artie.

She opened her wardrobe and pushed him in it. It made a loud thud.

"Oow." he hissed.

"Shut up!" she whispered.

She looked on her bed, all the costume of Artie was sprawled everywhere. She took it and put it below her bed, making a thing or two fell on the floor as she rushed herself.

She opened the door of her bedroom and let her friend enter. She began her little transformation and when she had finished she handed her a little mirror.

"Now, let's put this dress before making you up and putting you on! You'll see the dress is…wonderful!" she made a sign to her friend to wait as she went to her wardrobe. "I'm going to the wardrobe, now!" she said a little louder.

'Oh shit.' thought Artie. He tried the best as he could to hide himself behind her dresses in the corner of her wardrobe. He closed his eyes when she opened the door and tried to be the smallest as he could.

She took quickly the dress and closed the door. Artie opened his eyes again only to saw that he had his face in some red lingerie. 'AAAAAH!' he shouted mentally pushing away the little set.

He looked between the little horizontal cracks on the wardrobe door. His eyes widened. April was undressing herself! He closed his eyes. 'I must not look at her. She deserves respect.' He placed his hand in front of his eyes and separated his fingers to show his now opened eyes. 'She's in underwear!' he gapped on the beautiful sight he had. 'She…She's…' he lost his balance as he tried to see more and made a mess in Guinevere wardrobe. His head hit hardly on a wall.

April shouted in fear. 'I'm not very proud of you now…' he thought as he rubbed his painful head.

He heard Guinevere talked from the other side of the door. "I…admit it. I put everything in my wardrobe!" she laughed. "All the stuff must have fallen on the floor." she finished as she hit hard the door of her wardrobe.

He knew that hit was meant for him. He felt now pretty bad to have been such a pervert, but he couldn't really fight his hormones!

Guinevere suggested April to continue changing herself in the bathroom and took advantage of this to open the door of the wardrobe.

"You've got an eyeful as I see…" she smirked.

Artie blushed furiously. "She's, I mean… I didn't." he whispered.

"Don't need to explain yourself. I'm not your mother and I'm happy if I've made you see, at least, one thing interesting in your entire life. Now go, before she gets us." she tilted her head to her main door.

He bowed quickly to thank her and rushed outside the room.

-- end of flashback --

He sighed dreamingly. He would have really nice dreams tonight.

* * *

Author's note: The song I used is "I've just seen a face" from the Beatles. 

By the way, I had a flash yesterday. I found an actor who really look like Artie, it's amazing! As this text editor don't take URLs, all give you the way to have this picture. Go to Wikipedia and in the search input write : "Dan Byrd". Hope you'll think I'm not crazy! ;)


	9. Chapter 9 Some explanations

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the character of Shrek or the movie itself.

**Author's note:** Sorry it took so long. I was beginning to feel cheap not to update! Since the movie went out on DVD, the fanfiction was alive once again! I had once more some reviews:P

* * *

The next morning, April went directly to Artie's room. She knocked on his door only to see a very tired Artie opening it. His hair was in a mess and he had some rebel bangs, he had tiny eyes and his covers were stamp on his face. When he realized who he was in front of, he tried to regain his composure a little, but in vain. He still looked very tired. 

"You've had a hard night in your room as I see… You seem even more tired than me!" she laughed.

"Erm…yeah… Jason didn't let me have one minute alone, it exhausted me! He wanted to be sure I wouldn't go out…" he lied.

"Sorry for that…"

"…How was the night, anyway? It wasn't too hard having to endure the King Brian?" he joked.

"Oh, he made a big scene…as usual! A lot of things happened yesterday that I think you should know about…May I enter your room?"

"Erm… Wait, Jason is still sleeping. I'll change myself in soemething more...suitable... and we can talk about this outside if you want, okay?" he said blushing, looking to his only bottom pyjamas.

April waited outside his room for some minutes the time he could dressed himself, trying to get rid of the red on her cheeks too. When he went out of his room, they made their way to their favourite place near the river. As usual, they lied, near of each other, on the same tree they were the last time.

April explained the whole night gesturing every situations: Merlin that has been turned into a bee, Brian who brutally kissed her, Guinevere cousin, the love potion, Mathis who kissed her on the hand and the fact that she did not feel in love with Mathis anyway.

"Whoa… A lot happened yesterday. Too bad I wasn't there!" he said in a fake tone. "…But you said…it didn't change anything…?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"The potion…"

"Nah. Strange, isn't it? I guess the potion has expired."

"…Are you already in love with someone else…? Maybe it can't beat true feelings…?" he said with a glimpse of hope in his voice.

"No!" she said to fast.

"Oh…okay. The potion must have expired then." he tried a little smile. "And Merlin… Do you think…he'll be okay?" he asked really concerned.

"I really don't know… I hope. He's such a great teacher. I hope he's gonna be alright." she looked down at the grass.

"Hope too."

April put down her head on his shoulders in need of comfort. Artie soothed her, playing in her hair. They stayed like this for a long time, not noticing anything around them. They felt just great like this, not having to think on how it would look if anyone would see them.

---

The week quickly passed and before they knew they were already Friday. Every student waited in Merlin class, eager to see their teacher again, hoping he would feel great. No one had seen him since the little accident.

After a while, their principal opened the door with some papers in his arms. He sat behind the desk of Merlin, cleared his throat uneasily and watched the children in front of them. He knew they wouldn't like his news.

"My dear students… I'm really sorry to announce you…"

Some students were already whining, anticipating what would follow. The principal gave a sympathetic look to these students, mostly the poor Brian who kept asking him about the progress of the health of the professor. The boy liked the teacher so much!

"…Sadly, professor Merlin can't teach for an indeterminate time. I can assure you, though that he's feeling quite better, but he needs some rest to really be himself again for, let's hope, next year…"

April turned to look at Artie with unshed tears in her eyes, she didn't know why but she felt kind of responsible of what happened to him. Artie tried to reassure her with a gentle smile. It did help her a little. She always liked it when he smiled.

Brian, on his side, wasn't feeling better. He buried his head in folded arms on his desk and cried silently. We could only see his shoulders shaking a little. He felt horrible.

Lancelot sneered at how pitiful Brian was and couldn't help but slip an insult so all the class could laugh at him.

_'That's enough!'_ thought resentfully April. She did hate Brian for forcing her to kiss him at the ball because he wanted to make her fall in love with him with a love potion, but she did thought that no one deserves to be trampled down when we were already on the ground, helpless. She stood up angrily; ready to give Lancelot the lesson of his life when the principal intervene.

"April, sit down please. I understand what you're feeling right now, but don't do anything you could regret."

She took a big breath and sat back heavily on her chair.

"For you mister Lancelot…" the principal continued. "you have nothing less than 2 weeks of detention, you'll be cleaning our school, with the winter arriving quickly our caretaker needs some help." He said nonchalantly. "From now on, my dear students, I'll be your teacher of magic. It was, in fact, the subject I was teaching, long ago. Let's hope I'll be abble to make you like magic as much as Merlin did."

---

After the class, April rushed to the teacher's desk and asked to her principal if Merlin was still in the school. The principal nodded and asked her why she was concerned about that.

"Well… because since he is a great teacher and everyone is really sad of his sudden departure, I thought it would be great to send him a little card with a nice word from everyone… I could maybe… give him the card… personally?" tried April, inventing a plausible reason to be able to see Merlin before he left the school. She had something important to ask him… if he was still lucid.

"This is really nice of you April! Sure, you can see Merlin to give him this present! He's feeling better anyway!" he approved without hesitation.

---

By the end of the day, April had time to collect some words from everyone, even Brian. She thought he would feel a little better if he gave him this word. She decided to tell Artie about her mischievous plan to see Merlin before he left the school and why she needed to see him.

They went together to the infirmary and gave to the nurse a little piece of paper signed by the hand of the principal allowing them to see Merlin. The nurse nodded and let them enter his room.

They slowly opened his door, not wanting to disturb him or afraid him. _'The room is so silent…'_ thought April. This atmosphere was for her suffocating. She hated to be there, but she had to.

April and Artie sat silently of the chair beside the bed of Merlin who was sleeping steadily.

"I'm feeling bad to disturb him in his sleep… Should we wait that he wake-up?"

"And feel asleep on his bed holding his hand his despair? Would be a great scene." smirked Artie.

"Ahah. Funny."

"What? I'm only trying to make you smile a little. You don't seem quite at ease."

"I'm not… Never been to found of hospital."

"Neither I am… but it's not as if he was agonizing. He feels better and better, he just needs some time to rest a little. To relax."

"You're right. I'm doing a big fuss for nothing."

He squeezed her hand to calm her a little.

Merlin woke up at that moment, aware that he was not alone anymore in his room. He was quite surprised to see two of his students.

"My! What a nice surprise! We did let you pass? Oh, I'm sorry my dear children, you do not see the best sight of me right now…on this hospital bed with all this tubes everywhere…"

"Professor! We're so happy to see that you're alright! Yes the nurse let us passed, we had a note from the principal giving us the right to, because we're here to give you a little present from everyone. And you are radiant really! It's not a simple spell that will change you!" she said quickly, not taking time to breathe.

Merlin chuckled. "You are such a nice girl April! A nice girl to have as a gilfriend, hum?" he turned to look at Artie who reddened in a record time "…And what is this present?" he said suddenly curious.

"Oh! Almost already forget about this. Here it is!" she gave the card to Merlin.

He opened it and read the message of all his students and some tears began to appear in his eyes. He washed them away before they fell on his cheeks.

"Please forgive an old man to be emotional. I do not have the strength that I had when I was younger to be able to hide my tears."

April was almost crying at the sight of this helpless man. She gulped, shook her head to get a grip on herself and tried to enter in the subject she needed some enlightenment. The main reason of her visit.

"…Merlin… I'm sorry to ask you this right now…but something weird happened at the party, other than your attack… and I thought that maybe you could explain to me what happened." tempted April.

"I will answer with the best of my knowledge my dear. What is it that perturbs you?"

"Well… Brian got me to drink a love potion, because he has kind of an obsession for me. However, he was not the first to kiss me, it was Mathis. He kissed me on the hand indeed, but kissed nevertheless. So why I am not feeling any affects of it?" she blurted out. "I brought you the bottle where the potion was, hoping it would maybe help you to answer me…"

Merlin took the bottle and watched it meticulously. "Hum, strange…"

"What? What is it?" April said eagerly. Arthur eyes widened also when he heard the last sentence of Merlin.

"This is perfect, fully working potion, made by Fairy Godmother!" said gladly Merlin.

"Oh. But then why…?" asked a very puzzled April.

"Well you see... It is absolutely impossible to resist this potion, except for one exception. The only chance for this potion not to work is if it has simply nothing to create. The moment Mathis kissed you; the potion was destroyed, because its affect already existed. And it HAS to be mutual. One love-side is not enough." stated Merlin.

"Love? Mathis was nice and charming but I'm not in love with him! This is impossible!"

"The voice of people singing is not so different from people talking, my dear. Think of a moment." smirked Merlin.

By that time, Artie was redder than boiled lobster.

"...You mean the band?"

"No later that night my dear children, the singing contest." he smiled.

"But you weren't there anymore! How can you kn... can you... can..." said Artie now really stressed.

"You're right my boy. I wasn't there anymore, but thanks to magic I had the chance to see the whole night back while I was prisoner of my bed... Bed that I'm still prisoner."

Artie eyes widened. He knew all about it! _'Ok what do I do? Run? No... Would be suspect... Stay there? No April will know the truth! Ooooh, I'm such in a big mess!' _

"What? I'm not sure I understand you professor? It's kind of late and I'm not to in for riddles…"asked a still puzzled April.

Artie was now looking Merlin with pleading eyes almost waving "noooo" with his arms at the back of April.

"Merlin?" frowned April.

"I'm a buzzing bee! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!" gave Merlin as an answer.

Artie breathed out in relief. "We should maybe let him sleep… He must be exhausted because of the surprise and all…"

"You're right… I don't think I'm more advanced than I was before though."

"…Erm...Too bad you did not have more explanations." blushed Artie once more.

"Are you alright? You are so red!"

His eyes widened as he blushed even more. "Fever. Yeah! Might be a big fever."

"Ok then… I'll let him rest. You come?"

"Yeah I follow you just in a second!" When April was far enough, he turned to Merlin and thanked him for his trickery.

His only answer was: "I'm a buzzing bee!"

_'I guess I'm just a lucky man then!'_

He leaved the room and closed the door quietly when he heard April dashing to him.

"Artie! I talked to the nurse of your fever! She will examine you and you will be feeling better!" she said happily.

_'Damn!'_

* * *

**Author's note:** Big thanks to Mike619 for his idea! I almost took it literally, but well the idea was so good :)

Also sorry for the many mistakes on this chapter... It's two in the morning here and I'm almost sleeping on my laptop. :P


End file.
